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Origin of the Sabbatic Idea— The Jewish Sabbath 
—The Christian Scriptures and the Sabbath — 
Examination of Sunday Arguments— Origin 
of the Christian Sabbath— Testimony of the 
Christian Fathers— The Sabbath during the 
Middle Ages— The Puritan Sabbath— Testi- 
mony of Christian Reformers, Scholars, and 
Divines— Abrogation of Sunday Laws. 



~BV — 



JOHN E. REMSBURG. 



New York: 

PUBLISHED BY THE TRUTH SEEKER COMPANY, 

33 Clinton Place. 



/ 



Sabbath Breaking 



Origin of the Sabbatic Idea — The Jewish Sabbath—- 
The Christian Scriptures and the Sabbath — Exam- 
ination OF Sunday Arguments — Origin of the 
Christian Sabbath — Testimony of the Christian 
Fathers — The Sabbath during the Middle Ages — 
The Puritan Sabbath — Testimony of Christian 
Reformers, Scholars, and Divines — Abrogation of 
Sunday Laws. 



JOHN E. REMSBURG, 




New York: 

PUBLISHED BY THE TRUTH SEEKER COMPANY. 

33 Clinton Place. 



^ 



-^^^ 



-^z. 



Copyrighted, 18 85, 

BY 

The Truth Seeker Company. 




The Truth Seeker Company, 
Freethought Publishers, Printers, and Electro typers. 



SABBATH-BREAKING. 



*'Tou might as well commit murder as violate the Fourth Com- 
mandment Of the two evils, murder is the least." 

The above words, inspired by the announcement 
of a lecture that I was to deliver on the Sabbath 
Question, appeared in the correspondence of the 
Toronto World of December 13, 1884 Strange as 
these words sound, they yet voice a sentiment that 
has existed for ages. Three thousand years ago, 
for a trifling violation of this law, a man was 
stoned to death. The one who had been chosen 
to proclaim the law, and who in this case was its 
executor, was himself an unpunished murderer. 
Eighteen hundred years ago a man was crucified 
in Palestine. One of his crimes was Sabbath- 
breaking. On the very day that he was executed, 
those who had been instrumental in having him 
put to death — those who cried, "Crucify him!" — 
demanded and obtained the release of a murderer. 
Fifteen hundred years ago the Christian Sabbath 
was established. The imperial edict creating this 
institution was issued by a murderer — by one who 



4 SABBATH-BREAKlNa. 

had taken the lives of seven members of his own 
family. Three hundred years ago the Puritan 
Sabbath, with its dungeon and its chains, appeared 
in England. Its founder taught that murder was 
less vile than Sunday recreation; and that to make 
a feast on Sunday — to entertain your friends — to 
make your fellow-beings happy on this day, was a 
greater crime than to cut the throat of your child. 

At a meeting of a woman's society held in 
St. Louis a little while ago, a vote of thanks was 
tendered Governor Crittenden for having refused 
to pardon a person convicted of Sabbath-breaking. 
It was ascertained that the names of several mem- 
bers who supported the resolution had previously 
been affixed to a petition praying for the pardon 
of a murderer. There have been, and there are 
to-day, those, then, who consider Sabbath -breaking 
worse than murder. 

But what is this thing called Sabbath-breaking? 
Is it a real crime, or is it an artificial crime ? Is 
it a positive wrong, injurious to society, or is it a 
fancied wrong that exists only in in the minds of 
religious devotees? To contribute something to- 
ward the solution of this problem, is the object 
of my discourse. 



ORIGIN OF THE SABBATIC IDEA. 



OEIGIN OF THE SABBATIC IDEA. 

The setting apart of a day for rest, for recre- 
ation, or religious worsliip, is a custom that ante- 
dates the earliest authentic records of history. 
Centuries, and perhaps millenniums, before the 
slaves of Pharaoh fled from Egypt and founded a 
nation of their own, was such a day observed. 
The Israelites borrowed the custom either from 
their masters or from the neighboring nations 
who had followed it from time immemorial. It 
needed not the proclamation of a God to secure 
its adoption. The social instincts of the people 
and the interests of the priest combined to suggest 
the propriety of selecting a day to be observed in 
common by all the members of a tribe or nation. 
At the same time, the isolated condition of many 
of the earlier nations, as well as the differences of 
religious opinions, precluded the possibility of the 
same day being observed by all mankind ; and 
hence we find one nation or church observing one 
day, while another nation or church observes some 
other day. Every day has doubtless been the 
sacred day of some people. Take our three great 
Semitic churches, all springing from the same 
source, yet each observing a different day — the 
Jewish church observing Saturday, the Christian 



6 ORIGIN OF THE SABBATIC IDEA. 

church observing Sunday, and the Mohammedan 
church observing Friday. 

Yet why, with all this diversity, you ask, was 
every seventh day so generally adopted? Is this 
not proof of its divine origin ? No ; natural phe- 
nomena determined not only the principal divis- 
ions of time, but likewise suggested nearly all of 
our sacred and festal days. The annual revolution 
of the earth in its orbit around the sun determined 
the division called a year ; the diurnal rotation of 
the earth on its axis determined the division called 
a day. The time elapsing between one new moon 
and another suggested the division called a month; 
while the several phases or quarters of the moon 
suggested the division called a week ; and the 
length of the week, which nature had determined, 
suggested the septenary number in the observance 
of this day. 

At an early period in the world's history, we 
find the Pagans consecrating a day of the week to 
each of the seven principal celestial bodies which 
they had deified. Sunday was consecrated to the 
sun, Monday to the moon, Tuesday to Mars, 
Wednesday to Mercury, Thursday to Jupiter, Fri- 
day to Venus, and Saturday to Saturn. 

The names of the days are derived : Sunday 
from sun; Monday from moon; Tuesday from the 
Saxons' war-god, Tuisco ; Wednesday from their 



THE JEWISH SABBATH. 7 

god Woden; Thursday from TJior, tlie god of thun- 
der ; Friday from Fria, wife of Woden and goddess 
of marriage, and Saturday from Saturn. 

With the Egyptians, and with the Jews, the 
days of the week were not distinguished by names, 
but by the ordinal numbers. Sunday was called 
the first day of the week, Monday the second, 
Tuesday the third, Wednesday the fourth, Thurs- 
day the fifth, Friday the sixth, and Saturday the 
seventh. This fact remember, that with Jews and 
Christians, with all churches, and with all nations 
making the week a principal division of time, Sun- 
day has ever been the first day of the week, and 
Saturday the seventh 



THE JEWISH SABBATH. 

"But you are ignoring the Bible," says the 
Christian. " Tou ought to accept the Mosaic ac- 
count of the institution of the Sabbath." Which 
account? Tou cannot be ignorant of the fact that 
the Bible contains two apparently different and 
contradictory statements in regard to its origin. 
The Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, you are 
doubtless aware, is presented twice in the Pen- 
tateuch — in the twentieth chapter of Exodus, and 
in the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy. A striking 



8 THE JEWISH SABBATH. 

resemblance exists between tlie two copies ; the 
Commandments all appear in the same order, and 
in nearly the same language. But immediately 
following the Fourth Commandment in each case, 
and constituting a part, as it were, of the Deca- 
logue, is the reason assigned for instituting the 
Commandment. And what is the reason assigned? 
Kead the Commandment as given in Exodus, and 
immediately following it are these words : 

" For in six days the Lord made heaven and 
earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested 
the seventh day : wherefore the Lord blessed the 
sabbath day, and hallowed it " (Ex. xx, 11). 

Now read the Commandment as given in Deu- 
teronomy. In the same place where the words 
just quoted appear, occur the following: 

" And remember that thou wast a servant in 
the land of Egypt, and that the Lord thy God 
brought thee out thence through a mighty hand 
and by a stretched out arm : therefore the Lord 
thy God commanded thee to keep the sabbath 
day" (Deut. v, 15). 

Here are two entirely different reasons given 
for instituting the Sabbath. The first account 
states that it was instituted in commemoration of 
God's having rested from his labors on this day; 
the second account states that it was instituted in 
commemoration of the escape of the Israelites from 



THE BIBLICAL SABBATH ABOLISHED. ^ 

bondage. The one places it at tlie creation, the 
other at the exodus, two thousand five hundred 
years later, according to Bible chronology. 

But whatever may have been the origin of the 
Jewish Sabbath, the injunction to observe it is 
plain and emphatic : 

*' Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 
Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work : 
but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy 
God : in it thou shalt not do any work." 

Now, my Christian friend, do you accept or 
reject this law? Do you keep sacred this seventh 
day, or Saturday, as commanded by your God? 
You do not. Why ? " Because this law has been 
abrogated," you answer. Very well; for the sake 
of argument, at least, the validity of your conclu- 
sion is accepted. And now, if the Sabbath has 
been abolished, what means this perpetual cry 
about "Sabbath-breaking?" If this law has been 
annulled, then, surely, you have no Sabbath to 
desecrate. 

Oh, but you say that you have had another day 
consecrated in place of the old one; that you have 
been authorized to observe the first day of the 
week instead of the seventh. "When, where, by 
whom, and by what authority have you ? All your 
authority, you claim, emanates from the Bible. 
Now, please show me your authority for this. I 



10 THE JEWISH SABBATH. 

defy you to point to one line, one word, between 
the lids of your Bible, commanding you, or even 
authorizing you, to observe the first day of the 
week, or Sunday, as a Sabbath. You have no 
scriptural authority for this innovation whatever. 

When reproved for non-observance of the Sab- 
bath of the Bible, you plead the abrogation of the 
Jewish law ; to uphold the Sabbath of the church, 
you cite the Fourth Commandment. 

But, in the language of Milton, " If, on a plea 
of a divine command, you impose upon us the 
observance of a particular day, how do you pre- 
sume, without the authority of a divine command, 
to substitute another in its place ?" You denounce 
as wholly debased the Sabbath-breaker, and at- 
tribute nearly every accident occurring on Sunday, 
occurring on another day, to the displeasure of an 
offended deity. "What sublimity of logic! You 
ignore your God's injunction respecting the ob- 
servance of his Sabbath, and yet expect him to 
visit with awful punishment all those who do not 
choose to keep your Sabbath. Upon the same 
principle, the counterfeiter should expect the gov- 
ernment to punish those who do not accept his 
spurious coin as genuine. 

The advocate of Christian Sabbatarianism is 
placed in a most pitiable dilemma. If the Fourth 
Commandment is still binding upon us, then the 



THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES AND THE SABBATH. 11 

entire Christian church, with the exception of two 
or three minor sects, are habitual Sabbath-breakers, 
observing as they do the first day of the week in- 
stead of the seventh, which they are commanded 
to observe ; and if their God were to exercise the 
same severity toward them that he is said to have 
exercised in the time of Moses, and as some of 
his self-constituted agents and their dupes would 
fain have us believe he ought to exercise to-day, 
the church would virtually become extinct at the 
end of a single week. If, on the other hand, 
the Fourth Commandment was abrogated, then the 
Christian clergy, and others, in representing as a 
divine law that which is simply a human ordinance, 
instituted for the purpose of promoting the inter- 
ests of the church, are guilty of endeavoring to 
impose a gross fraud upon mankind. 



THE CHRISTIAN SCEIPTUEES AND THE 

SABBATH. 

In discussing and opposing the Sabbatic insti- 
tution, I shall meet its advocates upon their own 
ground and refute their claims by Christian testi- 
mony. The Christian scriptures and the Christian 
founders first deserve attention. 

The central figure in the Christian scriptures. 



12 THE CHRISTIAN SCRIPTURES AND THE SABBATH. 

in Christian theology, and in Christian history, is 
Jesus. In the Christian world, he is the omnipo- 
tent ruler whose authority it is worse than treason 
to deny; he is the infallible legislator whose laws 
are immutable ; he is the supreme judge from 
whose decision there is no appeal. Upon this 
question where did Jesus stand ? In the four 
gospels which purport to give a record of his 
life and teachings, three facts are prominent : 

1. Jesus never enjoined the observance of the 
Sabbath as a moral duty in any form or on any day. 

His Sermon on the Mount, Christians claim, 
constitutes the best code of morals ever given 
to the world. In this sermon he prescribes the 
various duties which he deems it necessary to 
observe. . But the observance of the Sabbath is 
not one of the duties enjoined. The word "Sab- 
bath" does not appear in this discourse. 

When the young man comes to him and asks 
him what he shall do to be saved, Jesus says : 
"Thou knowest the commandments. Do not com- 
mit adultery. Do not kill. Do not steal, Do not 
bear false witness. Defraud not. Honor thy 
father and mother" (Mark x, 19). The Fourth 
Commandment is not named. The moral laws of 
the Decalogue— those which are natural and just- 
are given ; the theological and ceremonial are 



JESUS A SABBATH-BREAKER. 13 

omitted, and with them the law pertaining to 
the Sabbath. 

2. Jesus ivas himself a Sahhath-hreaker, 
One of the principal charges made against 
him by the Jews, one of the chief reasons why 
they sought to take his life, was because he did 
not keep the Sabbath. You say that this was a 
false charge, a charge preferred against him by 
the Pharisees. Here I confront you with the tes- 
timony of the favorite evangelist. John admits 
that Jesus had broken the Sabbath. ''Therefore 
the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he 
not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that 
God was his father " (John v, 18). 

When they rebuked him for performing his 
works on the Sabbath, what answer did he give? 
^'My Father worketh hitherto, and I work" 
(John V, 17). And, from the Christian standpoint, 
was not the answer a reasonable one ? If, as 
Christians affirm, the various operations of nature 
are but the visible manifestations of God's work, 
then God himself has no regard for the Sabbath. 
He does not observe the Sabbath. The grass 
grows, the wind blows, the rivers run to the sea, 
the planets roll on in their orbits, and all nature 
is alive with activity on this as on every other 
day. 



14 THE CHEISTIAN SCRIPTUEES AND THE SABBATH. 

3. Not only did Jesus violate the Sabbath himself, 
he also encouraged and even commanded others to 
violate it 

He went with his disciples to the fields on the 
Sabbath and permitted them to gather the corn 
(Mark ii, 23). When the Jews reproved them, he 
told them that '*' the Sabbath was made for man," 
(ii, 27) — not as an ecclesiastical institution to be 
devoted wholly to religious ceremonies and idle- 
ness, but, like other days, to be used for ''the 
commodity and profit of man." 

When the impotent man was healed on the 
Sabbath, " Jesus saith unto him. Rise, take up 
thy bed, and walk" (John v, 8). When the 
Jews saw this, they said to the man, ''It is the 
Sabbath day : it is not lawful for thee to carry 
thy bed." And, judged by the Jewish scriptures, 
they were right. The Old Testament explicitly 
forbade it. "Thus saith the Lord: Take heed to 
yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath 
day" (Jer. xvii, 21). 

Next to Jesus, the most important character in 
Christian history, the chief writer of the Christian 
scriptures, the real founder of Christian theologj^ 
is Paul. What are Paul's views regarding the 
Sabbath? Substantially those of his master. He 
believes that with the advent of Christ all things 
have become new; that the Mosaic law has been 



PAUL AND THE SABBATH.- 15 

superseded by the gospel; that these old rites 
and customs, circumcision, sacrifices, feasts, and 
Sabbaths, pertained to the Jews, and to the Jews 
alone ; that they are no longer binding upon 
humanity. " But now we are delivered from the 
law " (Eom. yii, 6), he says. 

In his epistle to the Eomans, he writes : 

^' One man esteemeth one day above another : 
another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man 
be fully persuaded in his own mind " (xiv, 5). 

He upbraids the Galatians for their supersti- 
tious observance of days : 

** Ye observe days, and months, and times, and 
years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed 
upon you labor in vain " (iv, 10, 11). 

In his epistle to the Colossians, he is still 
more emphatic : 

" Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in 
drink, or in respect of a holy day, or of the new 
moon, or of the sahbath days " (ii, 16). 

Thus the whole tenor of Paul's teachings is op- 
posed to Sabbath observance ; opposed not merely 
to the observance of the Jewish Sabbath, but to 
this whole Sabbatarian idea. The same is true 
of all the writers of the New Testament. Says 
the Eev. Minot J. Savage : 

'' The writers of the New Testament, in several 
places, catalogue at length all kinds of sins and 



16 EXAMINATION OF SUNDAY ARGUMENTS. 

offenses against Christian character. They are so 
long, so exhaustive, that it is apparent, on the 
part of the writer, that he wishes substantially 
to cover the whole ground. Now, it is very re- 
markable that nowhere is there any mention of 
Sabbath-keeping, of Sunday-keeping, of Lord's- 
day -keeping, as binding ; and that nowhere is 
any fault found with anybody for neglecting to 
keep any of these days " (History of Sunday Ob- 
servance). 



EXAMINATION OF SUNDAY AEGUMENTS. 

But Christians must have something to uphold 
their holy day. It is the business of theologians 
to furnish evidence and arguments when needed. 
In this case they have been forced to imitate 
their God's creative act, and make them out of 
nothing. Smith's '' Bible Dictionary " gives a list 
of all the texts and pretexts used in support of 
a Sunday Sabbath. Let us examine them. 

1. '' The Lord rose on the first day of the 
week" (B. D.). 

But he rested in the grave on the seventh day. 
His followers, also, " rested the sabbath [seventh] 
day, according to the Commandment" (Luke xxiii, 



WHY NOT THE SIXTH DAY? 17 

56), and came to the sepulcher on the first day 
to perform the work of embalming his body. 

If any event in the history of Jesus is to be 
commemorated by a weekly memorial, why not 
select the most important event ? From a Chris- 
tian point of view, the atonement is of infinitely 
more importance than the resurrection. Why, 
then, is the sixth day not observed as the Sab- 
bath instead of the first? The orthodox idea of 
Sabbath observance, the solemnity attached to the 
modern Sabbath, is certainly more in harmony 
with the sad circumstances attending the cruci- 
fixion than with any other event in his career. 

There is a valid reason, then, why the sixth 
day should hold the highest rank among the days 
of the week with Christians. There is none for 
elevating the first day to this place. 

2. Jesus *^ appeared on the very day of his 
rising ... to ten apostles collected together " 
(B. D.). 

The assembling of the apostles on the day of 
the resurrection is another argument adduced in 
favor of Sunday observance. But why were the 
apostles *' collected together?" John says, "For 
fear of the Jews" (xx, 19). That they had not 
assembled in honor of the resurrection is proven 
by the fact that they did not know that the res- 
urrection had taken place, for the stories told 



18 EXAMINATION OF SUNDAY AEGUMENTS. 

them by the women, concerning it, '' seemed to 
them as idle tales, and they believed them not" 
(Luke xxiv, 11). 

That he appeared to the apostles "on the very 
day of his rising" is extremely doubtful. Accord-" 
ing to the accounts given in Luke and John, it 
seems that he did not visit them until after 
nightfall. If so, then, according to the Jewish 
mode of reckoning time, he did not appear to 
them until after the second day of the week had 
commenced. 

According to Matthew and Mark, the apostles, 
after the resurrection, were obliged to travel from 
Jerusalem to Galilee, a distance of nearly one 
hundred miles, before Jesus appeared to them. 
If this account be true, then it must have been 
the third or fourth day of the week when he 
first appeared to them. 

If the obligations of the Sabbath had at this 
time been transferred from the seventh to the 
first day, it must be admitted that both Christ 
and his followers violated them ; for while the 
Sabbath day's journey was but little more than 
half a mile, Christ and two of his disciples trav- 
eled from Jerusalem to Emmaus and returned — 
a journey of fourteen miles. 

3. "After eight days — that is, according to the 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PENTECOST. 19 

ordinary reckoning, on the first day of the next 
week — he appeared to the eleven" (B. D.). 

Even admitting that the first meeting occurred 
before the close of the first day — occurred on 
Sunday afternoon — it is plain to anyone but a 
theologian that if the next meeting did not take 
place until eight days after this, it could not, 
therefore, have taken place until Monday after- 
noon of the following week. 

4. "On the day of Pentecost, which in that 
year fell on the first day of the week, ' they were 
all with one accord in one place,' had spiritual 
gifts conferred on them, and in their turn began 
to communicate those gifts, as accompaniments of 
instruction, to others" (B. D.). 

Was the Holy Ghost bestowed upon them at 
this time because it was the first day of the 
week, or because it was the day of Pentecost? 
Let the same authority that presents the above 
as an argument in behalf of Sunday, answer: 

" The typical significance of the Pentecost is 
made clear from the events of the day recorded 
in the Acts of the Apostles. . . . Just as the 
appearance of God on Sinai was the birthday of 
the Jewish nation, so was that Pentecost the 
birthday of the Christian church. The Pentecost 
was the last Jewish feast that Paul was anxious 
to keep (1 Cor., xvi, 8), and Whitsuntide, its sue- 



20 EXAMINATION OF SUNDAY ARGUMENTS. 

cessor, was the first annual festival adopted in 
the Christian church " (Bible Dictionary, art Pen- 
tecost). 

But did the day of Pentecost in that year fall 
on the first day of the week, as claimed? The 
Kev. Dr. H. B. Hacket, Professor of Biblical 
Literature in Newton Theological Institution, and 
an advocate of Sunday observance, says : 

'* It is generally supposed that this Pentecost, 
signalized by the outpouring of the Spirit, fell 
on the Jewish Sabbath, our Saturday " (Com- 
mentary on the Original Text of the Acts, p. 50). 

5. "And upon the first day of the week, when 
the disciples came together to break bread, Paul 
preached unto them, ready to depart on the mor- 
row; and continued his speech until midnight. 
. . . When he therefore was come up again, 
and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a 
long while, even till break of day, so he de- 
parted" (Acts XX, 7, 11). 

The fact of Paul's once having preached on 
the first day of the week (?) is brought forward 
as authority for observing Sunday as a Sabbath. 
But what can be more unreasonable than this? 
Here was Paul, journeying from country to coun- 
try, and from city to city; and is it not fair to 
suppose that he would preach on any day that 
it was convenient for him to preach? But if 



AS TO THE EUCHARIST. 21 

his preaching on a particular day is evidence of 
that day being a Sabbath, the argument is an 
unfortunate one ; for in the same book he is re- 
ported to have preached on the Jewish Sabbath, 
or Saturday, no less than three times (Acts xvi, 
13 ; xvii, 2 ; xviii, 4). 

It is also urged that the day was observed as 
a Sabbath because the disciples had assembled 
together for the purpose of breaking bread, ^. 6., 
for the purpose of celebrating the Eucharist. In 
the same book (Acts ii, 46) w^e are told that they 
were in the habit of going from house to house 
and performing this ceremony every day. 

But when did the meeting referred to in the 
text really occur ? According to the Jewish 
method of reckoning time, and which the early 
Christians followed, the day began and ended at 
sunset. The Jewish Sabbath began at sunset, 
Friday evening, and ended at sunset, Saturday 
evening ; the first day of the week began at sun- 
set, Saturday evening, and ended at sunset, Sun- 
day evening. Was it on Saturday night, or 
Sunday night, that the meeting took place ? If 
it took place on the night following the first 
day, or Sunday night, as generally supposed, then 
Paul's preaching and the breaking of bread took 
place, not on the first, but on the second day of 
the week. If it took place on the night follow- 



22 EXAMINATION OV SUNDAY ARGUMENTS. 

ing the Jewish Sabbath or Saturday night, as 
some contend, then Paul traveled on the Chris- 
tian Sabbath — began a journey of nine hundred 
miles on Sunday morning. 

That the apostles designated any particular 
day of the week on which to celebrate the Euchar- 
ist, there is not a particle of proof to show. 
Had they appointed such a day for its observ- 
ance, it would undoubtedly have been either 
Saturday, the day on which the Jewish converts 
were accustomed to meet, or Thursday, the day 
on which the ceremony was instituted. 

But supposing that the custom was observed 
on the first day of the week, what has this to do 
with the question of Sabbath observance ? Does 
this prove that the day was observed as a Sab- 
bath? What do we understand by the term Sab- 
bath ? A day of rest ; in the Christian sense, a 
divinely appointed day ; a day wherein all secular 
work is sin. Now because they performed a cer- 
tain ceremony on a current day of the week, it 
does not follow^ that that day was necessarily a 
Sabbath. The primitive Christians, many of them, 
were in the habit of assembling together on 
Wednesday for the purpose of receiving religious 
instruction. But this does not prove that they 
observed the day as a Sabbath; for they did not. 
When their meetings were ended, they returned 



THE FIRST DAY A SECULAR ONE. 23 

to their homes and to their labors. Again, with 
the primitive church, Friday was, and with the 
Roman Catholic church it is, in some respects, a 
more sacred day than any other. "With Roman 
Catholics, Friday is a peculiarly sacred day, they 
observe it as such ; and yet they do not observe 
it as a Sabbath. 

6. '' Upon the first day of the week let every 
one of you lay by him in store, as God hath pros- 
pered him, that there be no gatherings when I 
come " (1 Corinthians, xvi, 2). 

This was not a public collection, as some claim, 
but a task to be performed at home. The Rev. 
J. W. Morton, for many years a Presbyterian mis- 
sionary to Hayti, says : 

" The whole question turns upon the meaning 
of the expression, 'by him,' and I marvel greatly 
how you can imagine that it means ' in the collec- 
tion box of the congregation.' Greenfield, in his 
Lexicon, translates the Greek term, ' With one's 
self, i. e,, at home.' Two Latin versions, the Vul- 
gate and that of Castillio, render it, ^ apvd se,' 
with one's self, at home. Three French transla- 
tions, those of Martin, Osterwald, and De Sacy, 
'chez SOI,' at his own house, at home. The Ger- 
man of Luther, 'hei sich selhst,' by himself, at home." 

The Douay Bible, the standard Catholic ver- 



24 EXAMINATION OP SUNDAY ARGUMENTS. 

sion, reads : " Upon the first day of the week let 
every one of you put apart with himself.'* 

That Paul should designate some particular 
day for the performance of this work, and that if 
any day of the week was considered holy, some 
other day would be selected, is but reasonable to 
suppose. Instead of supporting the doctrine of a 
Sunday Sabbath, the above text is one of the chief 
arguments relied upon by advocates of the Sev- 
enth Day or Jewish Sabbath to prove that the 
first day of the week was not regarded as a 
sacred but as a secular day by the primitive 
church. 

7. ''Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves 
together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting 
one another ; and so much the more as ye see 
the day approaching" (Hebrews, x, 25). 

"An injunction which seems to imply that a 
regular day for such assembling existed, and was 
well known " ( Bible Dictionary). 

The epistle containing this injunction, the same 
authority says, "was probably addressed to the 
Jews in Jerusalem and Palestine." That the He- 
brew Christians had a regular day for assembling 
has never been disputed ; and the editor of the 
"Bible Dictionary" knew, and every person ac- 
quainted with the history of primitive Christianity 
knows, that this day was the Jewish Sabbath. 



SATURDAY THE LORD's DAY. 25 

The fact that the Jewish converts continued 
for centuries to hold their meetings on Saturday 
ought to convince every intelligent Christian that 
the obligations of the Jewish Sabbath had not 
been transferred to Sunday. 

8. "I was in the spirit on the Lord's day" 
(Revelation i, 10). 

But what day is here referred to? If a cur- 
rent day of the week is meant, it certainly must 
be the seventh day — the day which the God of 
the Bible "blessed" and "sanctified" (Gen. ii, 3) 
— the day which he declares to be " my holy day " 
(Isa. Iviii, 13). " The only day that can be called 
' the Lord's day,' " says the Eev. J. N. Andrews, 
"is the Sabbath of the great creator." "The 
only day bearing this definition, in either the 
Old or New Testament," says Taylor in his " Obli- 
gation of the Sabbath," "is Saturday, the seventh 
day of the week." 

Not until the close of the second century, or 
the beginning of the third century, was the term 
Lord's day ever applied to the first day of the 
week. To-day, Sunday is called the Lord's day, 
and taking advantage of this fact, the clergy teach 
their followers that this is the day referred to 
in Revelation — an assumption which they know 
to be wholly unwarranted. 

These are the miserable subterfuges palmed 



26 ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 

off upon a credulous public in behalf of Sunday. 
Not one of these so-called arguments, not all of 
them combined, furnish the shadow of a reason 
for its observance. The Eev. J. N. Waggoner, an 
able Sabbatarian writer, thus tersely states the 
case against it : 

" Eead your Bible through a hundred times, 
with reference to this subject, and you will each 
time become more and more convinced of the 
truthfulness of the following notable facts : 
1. There is no divine command for Sunday ob- 
servance. 2. There is not the least hint of a 
Sunday institution. 3. Christ never changed God's 
Sabbath to Sunday. 4. He never observed Sun- 
day as the Sabbath. 5. The apostles never kept 
Sunday for the Sabbath. 6. There is no proph- 
ecy that Sunday would ever take the place of 
the Sabbath. 7. Neither God, Christ, angels, nor 
inspired men have ever said one word in favor 
of Sunday as a holy day." 



OEIGIN OF THE CHEISTIAN SABBATH. 

For centuries after the commencement of the 
Christian era there w^as no such thing as a 
Christian Sabbath. For centuries Christians ob- 
served no Sabbath. For their public meetings, 



THE OBSERVANCE OF VARIOUS BAYS. 27 

various days were used ; some churches met on 
Sunday, some on Wednesday, some on Friday, 
and some on Saturday. 

Mosheim, an advocate of first-day observance, 
after referring to Sunday, says : 

" Many also observed the fourth day of the 
week, on which Christ was betrayed ; and the 
sixth, which was the day of the crucifixion" 
(Ecclesiastical History, Part IL, chap. i). 

The Rev. Dr. Heylyn, after stating that Sat- 
urday was retained in many of the Eastern 
churches, says : 

" The Sunday in the Eastern churches had no 
great prerogative above other days, especially 
above the Wednesday and the Friday" (History 
of the Sabbath, Part II., chap. iii). 

None of these days, however, was observed by 
the church as a Sabbath. Their religious ser- 
vices occupied but a portion of the day, and 
when these were ended. Christians resumed their 
labors. 

To-day there is a Christian Sabbath. This 
institution had an origin somewhere and at some 
time. Some one instituted it. Who? Not the 
God of Christians — not their Christ ; neither was 
it his apostles. It was that imperial butcher, 
Constantine, who created the Christian Sabbath. 
A man who deluged the Koman empire with 



28 ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 

blood ; a man who threw his captives to wild 
beasts ; a man who killed the husband of his 
sister and the father of his wife ; a man who 
tore his nephew, a little boy of eleven years, 
from the arms of a pleading sister, and murdered 
him ; a man who plunged his own wife into a 
bath of boiling water ; a man who consigned to 
a cruel death his own innocent son. All of these 
crimes committed, not while yet a Pagan, but 
after he had embraced the Christian faith. 

Here is the edict of Constantine, issued a.d. 
321, instituting this so-called Christian Sabbath : 

'' Let all judges, and all people of the towns, 
rest, and all the various trades be suspended, on 
the venerable day of the Sun. Those who live 
in the country, however, may freely, and without 
fault, attend to the cultivation of the fields, lest 
with the loss of favorable opportunity the com- 
modities offered by heaven be destroyed " (Jus- 
tinian Code, Book III., title 12). 

Now, I challenge the defenders of the Chris- 
tian Sabbath to produce a particle of credible 
evidence tending to establish the existence of this 
institution prior to this edict of Constantine's in 
the fourth century. Sir William Domville, one 
of the most eminent Protestant divines of his 
age, referring to this subject, says : 

" Centuries of the Christian era passed away 



WHY THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH WAS INSTITUTED. 29 

before the Sunday was observed by the Christian 
church as a Sabbath. History does not furnish 
us with a single proof or indication that it was 
at any time so observed previous to the Sab- 
batical edict of Constantine in a.d. 321 " (Six 
Texts, p. 241). 

Why was the Christian Sabbath established? 
Because the clergy could not close their eyes to 
the importance of having a day set apart for their 
especial work. With Constantine, they had, for ^ 
the first time, the power to secure such an in- 
stitution by legal enactment; with Constantine, 
Christianity became the state religion of the 
Roman empire, and so, with the advice of the 
priesthood, this Sabbath edict was issued. 

Why was Sunday selected for the Christian 
Sabbath ? Various reasons have been assigned. 
But the correct one has, so far as possible, been 
withheld from the public. With the Pagans com- 
prising a large portion of the empire, Sunday was 
already the chief day of the week. It was the 
day which they had consecrated to the sun; and 
although they did not observe it as a Sabbath, it 
was yet their sacred day, and we see how much 
easier it would be to compel them to abstain from 
labor on this day than on any other. To blend, 
as far as possible, into one harmonious whole 
the discordant systems of Paganism and Chris- 



30 OEIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. 

tianity was the ambition of Constantine's reign. 
In tlie prosecution of this work, it is charged by- 
Protestants that Christianity was corrupted, that 
in order to unite the young and rising faith with 
the old and waning one, compromises were made. 
They are loth to tell us, however, that one of 
these compromises was the adoption of the old 
Pagan holiday of Sunday for the Christian Sab- 
bath. And yet it was. 

" The festival of Sunday," says Andrews, " is 
more ancient than the Christian religion, its origin 
being lost in remote antiquity. It did not origi- 
nate, however, from any divine command nor from 
piety toward God : on the contrary, it was set 
apart as a sacred day by the heathen world in 
honor of their chief god, the sun" (History of the 
Sabbath, p. 258). 

Mour, an eminent English divine, and an up- 
holder of the Christian Sabbath, says : 

"It is not to be denied but we borrow the 
name of this day from the ancient Greeks and 
Eomans, and we allow that the old Egyptians 
worshiped the sun, and as a standing memorial 
of their veneration, dedicated this day to him. . 
. . . So that Sunday being the day on which 
the gentiles solemnly adored that planet, and 
called it Sunday, . . the Christians thought fit 
to keep the same day and the same name of it, 



PRIESTLY EXPEDIENCY. 31 

that they might not appear causelessly peevish, 
and by that means hinder the conversion of the 
gentiles" (Dialogues on the Lord's Day, p. 22). 

Another advocate of first - day observance 
makes a similar apology : 

"That very day was the Sunday of their 
heathen neighbors and respective countrymen; 
and patriotism gladly united with expediency in 
making it at once their Lord's day and their 
Sabbath" (North British Keview, vol. xviii, p. 409). 

Thus we see that it was priestly " expediency " 
backed by a murderer's edict, instead of a divine 
decree or an apostolic injunction, that made Sun- 
day the Sabbath of the Christians. 

Prejudice, too, has played a prominent part 
in this Sabbatarian drama. The ancient Pagans, 
and among them the Egyptians, had elevated Sun- 
day to the first rank among the days of the week. 
Dislike for their oppressors doubtless caused the 
Jews" to ignore the sacredness attached to it and 
choose another for their holy day. Hatred of 
the Jews caused the gentile Christians to spurn 
the Jewish Sabbath and hold their meetings on 
various other days. Contempt for the Church 
of Eome well nigh caused the Protestants to 
dethrone the Lord's day and substitute another 
in its place. Calvin and others seriously proposed 



32 TESTIMONY OF THE CHEISTIAN FATHEES. 

the adoption of Thursday as the day on which to 
hold religious services. 



TESTIMONY OF THE CHEISTIAN FATHEES. 

That the Christian- Sabbath did not have an 
apostolic origin as claimed, that it was not 
observed by the primitive Christians, is clearly 
attested by the writings of the Christian fathers. 
These writings show that during the early cent- 
uries of the church this institution was unknown. 

The most renowned fathers of the second cent- 
ury were Justin Martyr and Irenaeus. St. Jus- 
tin lived and wrote about 154 a.d. In his con- 
troversy with Trypho, the Jew, he says : 

"You, because you are idle for one day, sup- 
pose you are pious. . « . Our God is not 
pleased with such observances " (Dialogues, chap, 
xii). 

"You see that the heavens are not idle, nor 
do they observe the Sabbath. Continue as you 
were born. For if before Abraham there was no 
need of circumcision ; nor of the Sabbaths, nor 
of feasts, nor of offerings before Moses; so now 
in like manner there is no need of them siuce 
Jesus Christ " (Ibid, chap, xxiii). 

So unpopular were the Sabbath and other 



JUSTIN AND IRENiEUS. 33 

Mosaic ordinances in Justin's time, that many of 
the gentile Christians treated as outcasts the 
Jewish Christians who retained them. Referring 
to this fact, Justin says : 

"But if some, through weak-mindedness, wish 
to observe such institutions as were given by 
Moses, . . . yet choose to live with the Chris- 
tians and the faithful, not inducing them either to 
be circumcised like themselves, or to keep the Sab- 
bath, or to observe any other such ceremonies, then 
I hold that we ought to join ourselves to such, 
and associate with them in all things as kinsmen 
and brethren" (Dialogues, chap, xlvii). 

This passage shows that while Justin was 
more tolerant than his brethren, that while he 
did not regard Sabbath observance a sufficient 
cause for refusing to fellowship with those who 
followed it, he yet considered it a foolish supersti- 
tion. 

St. Irenaeus, 190 A.D., writes as follows : 

"That man was not justified by these things 
[Sabbath observance, etc.], but that they were 
given as a sign to the people, this fact shows — 
that Abraham himself, without circumcision and 
without the observance of Sabbaths, believed God 
and it was imputed unto him for righteousness, 
and he was called the friend of God " (Against 
Heresies). 



34 TESTIMONY OF THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS. 

*^ These things, therefore, which were given for 
bondage, and for a sign to them, he [Christ] can- 
celed by the new covenant of liberty " (Ibid). 

The most eminent fathers of the third cent- 
ury were Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and 
Origen. Clement and Tertullian wrote at the 
beginning of the century, and Origen near the , 
middle of it. Clement says : 

" We are commanded to reverence and to honor 
the same one, being persuaded that he is word, 
savior, and leader, and by him, the father, not on 
special days, as some others, but doing this con- 
tinually in our whole life, and in every way " (The 
Miscellanies, Book VII., chap. vii). 

Tertullian uses the following language : 

"It follows, accordingly, that in so far as the 
abolition of carnal circumcision and of the old 
law is being demonstrated as having been consum- 
mated at its specific times, so also the observance 
of the Sabbath is being demonstrated to have 
been temporary " (Answer to the Jews). 

In the writings of Tertullian also appear these 
words : 

"By us [Christians], to whom Sabbaths are 
strange " (On Idolatry). 

The works of Tertullian, who is, so far as 
known, the first writer to apply the term Lord's 
day to Sunday, show that in his time Christians 



TERTULLIAN, YICTORINUS, AND EUSEBIUS. 35 



IJ , ^v^^v^^.^^, v.^, 



generally observed this day as a sort of festival 
or holiday. That the modern Sabbatic obliga- 
tions attached to it were not even tolerated, is 
proved by the following : 

^' We count fasting or kneeling in worship on 
the Lord's day to be unlawful " (De Corona). 

The language of Origen is similar to that of 
Clement : 

" To the perfect Christian, who is ever in his 
thoughts, words, and deeds serving his natural 
Lord, God the Word, all his days are the Lord's, 
and he is always keeping the Lord's day " 
(Against Celsus, Book VIIL, chap. xxii). 

Bishop Victorinus, who wrote about the close 
of the third century, says : 

" Lest we should appear to observe any Sab- 
bath with the Jews, which Christ himself, the 
Lord of the Sabbath, says by his prophets that 
' his soul hateth ; ' and which Sabbath he, in his 
body, abolished" (Ante-Nicene Library, vol. xviii). 

The celebrated ecclesiastical scholar and his- 
torian, Eusebius, writing in the early part of the 
fourth century, says : 

"They [the patriarchs] did not therefore re- 
gard circumcision nor observe the Sabbath, neither 
do we " (Ecclesiastical History, Book I., chap. iv). 

After the promulgation of Constantine's edict, 
Eusebius advocated the observance of Sunday as 



36 TESTIMONY OF THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS. 

a Sabbath. Many of the leading divines, how- 
ever, refused to recognize it as such. 

St. Cryril, Bishop of Jerusalem nearly fifty 
years after Constantine, wrote as follows : 

" Turn thou not out of the way to Samari- 
tanism or Judaism, for Jesus Christ hath redeemed 
thee. Henceforth reject all observance of Sab- 
baths " (Savage's History of Sunday Observance). 

St. Epiphanius, at the close of the fourth 
century, says : 

"God regarded not outward cessation from 
works more upon one day than another" (Taylor's 
Works, vol. xii). 

The great Jerome, 400 A.D., says : 

"Considered in a purely Christian point of 
view, all days are alike " (Neander's Church His- 
tory, vol. iii). 

The foregoing is the testimony of the ten 
most eminent Christian fathers and divines, rep- 
resenting every part of the Christian world — 
Europe, Asia, and Africa. Their testimony covers 
a period of two hundred and fifty years — a period 
extending from the middle of the second century, 
when historical Christianity first emerged from 
the obscurity of tradition, to the beginning of the 
fifth century, when it entered the shades of me- 
dieval darkness. 

This testimony is decisive and unanswerable. 



THE SABBATH DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 37 

In demonstrating the non-existence of the Chris- 
tian Sabbath during the early centuries of the 
church, it furnishes an overwhelming refutation of 
the doctrine of its divine or apostolic origin. 



THE SABBATH DUEING THE MIDDLE 

AGES. 

The edict of Constantine was not universal in 
its application; the agricultural class w^as exempt 
from its authority. Nor was it this class alone 
that abstained from labor on Sunday. For several 
centuries after, various other kinds of labor were 
allowed on this day. 

Dr. White, Bishop of Ely, says: 

"In St. Jerome's days [400 A.D.], and in the 
very place where he was residing, the devoutest 
Christians did ordinarily work upon the Lord's 
day, when the service of the church was ended" 
(Dialogues on the Lord's Day, p. 236). 

Jerome himself, speaking of certain devout 
Christian women, says : 

"As soon as they returned home on the Lord's 
day, they sat down severally to their work, and 
made clothes for themselves and others " (Hey- 
lyn's History of the Sabbath, Part II., chap. iii.). 



38 THE SABBATH DUBING THE MIDDLE AGES. 

Kitto's " Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature " 
says : 

" Though in later times we find considerable 
reference to a sort of consecration of the day, it 
does not seem at any period of the ancient 
church to have assumed the form of such an 
observance as some modern religious communities 
have contended for. . . . Chrysostom concludes 
one of his homilies by dismissing his audience 
to their respective ordinary occupations" (Art. 
Lord's Day). 

In 538, the Third Council of Orleans recom- 
mended the observance of Sunday as a Sabbath 
by all classes ; not because labor on this day 
was a sin, but "in order that the people might 
not be prevented from attending church." This 
resolution, however, being merely advisory, but 
little attention seems to have been paid to it. 

Of the Western church, Dr. White writes as 
follows : 

"The Catholic church, for more than six hun- 
dred years after Christ, permitted labor, and gave 
license to many Christian people to work on the 
Lord's day, at such hours as they were not com- 
manded to be present at the public service " (Treat- 
ise of the Sabbath Day, p. 217). 

Eeferring to the Eastern church, Dr. Heylyn 
writes : 



SUNDAY IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 39 

"It was near nine hundred years from our 
savior's birth, if not quite so much, before re- 
straint of husbandry on this day had been first 
tliought of in the East ; and probably being thus 
restrained did find no more obedience there than 
it had done before in the western parts " (History 
of the Sabbath, Part II., chap. v). 

That civil courts were held on Sunday until a 
very late period, is attested by the fact that a 
council which met at Arragon in the sixth cent- 
ury forbade the clergy to attend. In the ninth 
century a church council, acting in conjunction 
with the civil government, prohibited civil plead- 
ings on Sunday in France. A hundred years later, 
King Athelstan prohibited them in England. 

In the twelfth century, Sunday was, for the 
first time, called the Christian Sabbath. At the 
advent of the succeeding century a spasmodic 
effort was made to secure a more rigid observance 
of this and the other holy days. In 1201 St. 
Eustace appeared with a parchment, purporting to 
be a proclamation written l^^y God in heaven and 
laid upon the altar of St. Simeon in Jerusalem. 
Christian prelates pronounced the document gen- 
uine, and Innocent III. gave it the papal sanction. 
Among other things, this divine decree contained 
the following : 

"By my right hand I swear unto you, that if 



40 THE SABBATH DURING THE MIDDLE AGES. 

you do not observe the Lord's day, and the fes- 
tivals of my saints, I will send unto yon the Pagan 
nations, that they may slay you." 

If they still persist in violating these holy 
days (after having been slain), 

" I will open the heavens, and for rain I will 
rain upon you stones, and wood, and hot water, 
in the night, that no one may take precautions 
against the same, and that so I may destroy all 
wicked men." 

If they continue obstinate, they are, like Pha- 
raoh's cattle, to be killed again : 

^' I will send unto you beasts that have the heads 
of lions, the hair of women, the tails of camels, and 
they shall be so ravenous that they shall devour 
your flesh, and you shall long to flee away and 
hide yourselves for fear of the beasts." 

To aid in the work, numerous ''well-attested" 
miracles were published. A farmer, going to his 
field to plow on Sunday, took a piece of iron to 
clean his plow. The iron became fixed in his hand 
and remained in it two years. A. miller put a 
grist in the hopper to grind on the Sabbath, but 
the vessel was filled with blood instead of flour. 
A woman attempted to bake on Saturday evening 
after the Sabbath commenced, and though she 
kept the oven heated for two days, her " cake was 
dough." Another, failing to get her dough pre- 



THE ORDER OF EDWARD VI. 41 

pared before the Sabbath began, put it a^side, in- 
tending to bake on Monday, but when she looked 
at it again, it was baked. 

It was decreed that the Lord's day should be- 
gin at 3 P.M. on Saturday. To give full measure, 
a Scotch council declared that its observance 
should begin at noon on Saturday and end at sun- 
rise on Monday — continue forty-two hours. 

But these efforts to enforce a strict observance 
of Sunday were either transient or local. Sunday 
labor under certain restrictions was frequently if 
not generally allowed. In the fourteenth century 
a Spanish council decreed that Christians might 
labor on the Lord's day with permission of the 
parish priest. In England fairs and markets were 
held in the churches on Sunday up to the middle 
of the fifteenth century. A century later (1547), 
Edward VI., head of the Episcopal church, issued 
the following order : 

"All parsons, vicars, and curates, shall teach 
and declare unto their parishioners, that they may 
with a safe and quiet conscience, in the time of 
harvest, labor upon the holy and festival days." 

The council of Eheims (1533) decreed " that no 
man on these days give himself to plays or dances, 
especially during service,''' This interdiction was 
understood, in its strict sense, to apply only to 
the hours devoted to public worship ; and during 



42 THE PURITAN SABBATH. 

this and all of the preceding centuries, even when 
laboring on Sunday was not permitted, Sunday 
recreation and amusements were allowed. 



THE PUKITAN SABBATH. 

It was reserved for the Puritans to crush out 
every vestige of popular liberty on Sunday. The 
Puritan Sabbath, whose decrepit form, supported 
by the crutches of state laws, still lingers in our 
midst, is one of the most despicable frauds that a 
knavish priesthood ever imposed upon humanity. 
The story of its establishment and reign consti- 
tutes one of the most disgraceful chapters in the 
history of ecclesiastical despotism. 

The Catholic church had created an incredible 
number of holy days or festivals. One of them 
was the Lord's day. This institution rested upon 
the same foundation as the others — it had the 
authority of the church for its support. It was 
observed with as much reverence as the others, 
and with no more. There was not an argument 
that could be adduced in its behalf that would 
not apply with equal force to the others. In the 
Church of England these festivals were received 
with some degree of favor, but to the Dissenters 



THE FATHER OF THE PURITAN SABBATH. 43 

they were an intolerable burden. Relative to the 
subject, Dr. Heylyn writes : 

" The brethren had tried many ways to suppress 
them formerly, as having too much in them of the 
superstitions of the Church of Rome, but they 
had found no way successful till they fell on this, 
which was to set on foot some new Sabbath doc- 
trine, and, by advancing the authority of the Lord's- 
day Sabbath, to cry down the rest." 

Alluding to the same subject, the German divine, 
Dr. Hengstenberg, says : 

'' The opinion that the Sabbath was transfer- 
red to the Sunday was first broached in its per- 
fect form, and with all its consequences, in the 
controversy which was carried on in England 
between the Episcopalians and Presbyterians. . . 
. . The Presbyterians were now in a position 
which compelled them either to give up the 
observance of the Sunday, or to maintain that a 
divine appointment from God separated it from 
the other festivals. The first they could not do. 
.... They therefore decided upon the latter " 
(Lord's Day, p. 66). 

To Dr. Bound, who is justly styled the Father 
of the Puritan Sabbath, belongs the credit of 
furnishing the needed plan and the arguments 
for its support. The following is his theory : 

" That which is natural, namely, that every 



44 THE PURITAN SABBATH. 

seventh day should be kept holy unto the Lord, 
that still remaineth : that which is positive, 
, namely, that day which was the seventh day 
from the creation, should be the Sabbath, or 
day of rest, that is now changed in the church 
of God" (The True Doctrine of the Sabbath, 
p. 51). 

"He [God] maketh the seventh day to be 
genus in this commandment, and to be perpetual; 
and in it by virtue of the commandment to 
comprehend these two species or kinds : the 
Sabbath of the Jews and of the gentiles, of the 
law and of the gospel; so that both of them 
were comprehended in the commandment, even as 
genus comprehendeth both his species " (Ibid, 
p. 71). 

It is a lamentable fact that the more false 
and unreasonable a religious doctrine is, the 
more readily it is accepted. And so, baseless 
and absurd as this new Sabbatarian doctrine was, 
the rapidity with which it spread exceeded the 
expectations even of its most sanguine supporters. 
Dr. Heylyn says : 

" Though Jewish and Rabbinical this doctrine 
was, it carried a fair show of piety, at the least, 
in the opinion of the common people, and such 
as did not stand to examine the true grounds 
thereof, but took it upon the appearance ; such 



PENALTIES OF SABBATH-BBEAKING. 45 

as did judge, not by the workmanship of the 
stuff, but the gloss and color, in which it is not 
strange to see how suddenly men were induced, 
not only to give way unto it, but without more 
ado to abet the same, till in the end, and in very 
little time, it grew the most bewitching error and 
most popular infatuation that ever was infused 
into the people of England." 

Thus, at last, this venerabile die Solis, the day 
once consecrated to the orb of light, was over- 
spread with the thick clouds of theological gloom, 
that in the darkness Superstition's bats and owls 
might the more readily secure their prey. 

The most rigid observance of the Sabbath was 
at once enforced in Great Britain and her colonies. 
In England it was a crime to perform any labor 
whatever on this day. It was a sin to cook or 
even kindle a fire. A husband was not permitted 
to kiss his wife, nor were parents permitted to 
kiss their children on the Sabbath. A little child 
stretched upon a bed of mortal sickness might 
throw its loving arms around its mother's neck 
and crave with its last breath her farewell kiss, 
and to grant that dying child's request would be 
a violation of these Sabbatarian laws. 

For daring to question the authority of this 
institution many were persecuted, imprisoned, and 
even put to death. Mrs. Trask, an English 



46 THE PUEITAN SABBATH. 

teacher, was a believer in Sabbath observance ; 
but she believed that the Sabbath of the Bible 
was the true Sabbath, and this she observed. 
That she might not violate the laws of her coun- 
try, nor give offense to her neighbors, she also 
kept the Christian Sabbath. For an honest 
avowal of her opinions she was imprisoned and 
fed on "bread and water, roots and herbs," for 
fifteen years, or until she died. Francis Bamp- 
field, an old man of seventy years, published a 
vindication of the ancient Sabbath. For this his 
property was confiscated ; he was imprisoned, and 
so brutally treated that he died. In 1661, for 
rejecting the Puritan Sabbath, John James, a 
Baptist clergyman, was hanged and quartered. 
"After he was dead his heart was taken out and 
burned, his quarters were affixed to the gates of 
the city, and his head was set up in Whitechapel 
on a pole opposite to the alley in which his 
meeting-house stood" (Utter's Manual of the Sev- 
enth Day Baptists, p. 23). 

In Scotland it was a sin to laugh or even 
smile on Sunday; and it is a historical fact that 
when Charles I. visited Scotland he was publicly 
rebuked by the clergy for having indulged in , a 
laugh on that day. Off the north coast of that 
country a shipwreck once occurred on the Sab- 
bath. A party of fishermen upon the shore saw 



CHRISTIAN OUTRAGES IN MASSACHUSETTS. 47 

the wreck — saw the sailors struggling with the 
waves. They went to their rescue and saved 
them ; and for this very act these fishermen were 
required to do penance for having violated the 
Sabbath. 

In America the colonial legislatures enacted 
laws making it a misdemeanor to do almost any- 
thing on Sunday but walk ^'reverently" to and 
from church. In Boston an iron cage was kept 
in the public square, where Sabbath-breakers were 
confined and exhibited. The Quakers, while they 
were permitted to live in New England — before 
they got to hanging and banishing them — were 
continually being persecuted for their more ra- 
tional observance of the Sabbath. Three Quaker 
women were arrested for some trivial offense and 
convicted of Sabbath-breaking. This was their 
punishment : On a cold December day they were 
taken out, stripped to the waist, tied behind a 
cart, and publicly whipped through the streets of 
Boston and Koxbury, the snow over which they 
passed being stained with the drops of blood that 
fell from their lacerated bodies. 

The old colonial records of Massachusetts are 
still preserved in the public archives at Wor- 
cester. In these records, one Mary Fay stands 
convicted of Sabbath- breaking. Her crime was 
this : On a Saturday night she received word that 



48 THE PURITAN SABBATH. 

her married daughter, living a mile away, was 
sick. The next morning she went on horseback 
to see her daughter. For this she was arrested 
and convicted of Sabbath-breaking. An appeal 
was taken to a higher court, but in vain, and a 
round three hundred dollars was the cost. Three 
hundred dollars for visiting a sick child! A 
mother arrested, dragged before the courts, 
robbed, and disgraced for performing one of the 
holiest deeds a mother can perform! 

"What would have been the fate of a religious 
reformer had he appeared in New England at 
this time, passing through the cornfields, plucking 
the ears of corn, or healing the sick on the Sab- 
bath ? The Jews of Palestine suffered Jesus to 
go among them three years, teaching his heretical 
doctrines and condemning their Sabbath, before 
they crucified him. The Christians of New Eng- 
land would have hanged him in three weeks. 

It is related that a certain boy, in order to ingra- 
tiate himself into the favor of his parents, resolved 
that for once he would keep the Sabbath in true 
Puritanic style. Well, he succeeded, but it was a 
terrible task. Every moment seemed an hour, 
but at last night came. When he retired, the 
father said to him, *'My son, you have faithfully 
kept this Sabbath, you have been a good boy to- 
day ; if you continue to be good, when you die you 



TESTIMONY OF DISTINGUISHED CHRISTIANS. 49 

will go to heaven and be with God, where it is 
always one blessed Sabbath." There was little 
consolation in this thought for the poor boy; 
but presently a gleam of hope shot through his 
troubled mind, and he ventured to inquire, 
"Father, when I die and go to heaven, if I am 
real good there, won't God let me go to hell on 
Saturday afternoons to have a little fun ? " Hell 
was a paradise compared with this Puritan Sab- 
bath. 



TESTIMONY OF CHEISTIAN KEFOEMEES, 
SCHOLAES,AND DIVINES. 

We are taught in nearly every pulpit, and in 
nearly every Sunday-school, that Sabbath-breaking 
is a monstrous crime ; that the Christian Sabbath 
was ordained by God, that all who violate it 
violate God's law. They would have us believe 
that all good Christians have acknowledged its 
authority ; that none but wicked unbelievers have 
ever questioned it. But what are the facts? 
Simply these : the most eminent Christians that 
have ever lived — the church's greatest scholars 
and divines — have had the candor to admit that 
the observance of this day, so far as divine author- 
ity is concerned, is wholly unauthorized ; that the 
Christian Sabbath was made by man, that there 



50 TESTIMONY OF DISTINGUISHED CHRISTIANS. 

is no more sacredness attached to Sunday than 
to any other day. And now let me turn aside the 
blinds that priestcraft has set before the windows 
of your mind, and cause a few rays of light from 
the brightest luminaries of the church to fall 
upon this idol of superstition. 

Is the Christian Sabbath a divine institution ? 
Is Sabbath observance a moral duty, and Sabbath- 
breaking a crime ? Let the founder of Protestant- 
ism answer. Says Martin Luther : 

"As regards the Sabbath, or Sunday, there is 
no necessity of keeping it" (Michelet's Life of 
Luther, Book IV., chap. ii). 

"The Sabbath in no way pertained to the 
gentiles. It was not commanded to them nor 
observed by them. Even Paul and the apostles, 
after the gospel began to be preached and spread 
over the world, clearly released the people from 
the observance of the Sabbath " (Luther's Works, 
vol. iii, p. 73). 

"If anywhere the day is made holy for the 
mere day's sake— if anywhere any one sets up its 
observance upon a Jewish foundation — then I order 
you to work on it, to dance on it, to ride on it, to 
feast on it — to do anything that shall reprove 
this encroachment on the Christian spirit of 
liberty " (Luther's Table Talk). 



MELANCTHON, BUCER, AND ERASMUS. 51 

Philip Melancthon, the friend and coadjutor 
of Luther, testifies as follows : 

"They who think that the observance of the 
Lord's day has been appointed by the authority of 
the church instead of the Sabbath, as a necessary 
thing, are greatly deceived. The scripture allows 
that the observance of the Sabbath has now be- 
come void, for it teaches that the Mosaic cere- 
monies are not needful after the revelation of the 
gospel " (Augsburg Confession). 

*' The observance of them [Lord's day, Easter, 
etc.] is not to be thought necessary to salvation, 
nor the violation of them, if it be done without 
offense to others, to be regarded as a sin" (Ibid). 

'' The observance neither of the Sabbath nor 
of any other day is necessary " (lb). 

Martin Bucer, next to Luther and Melancthon 
the most distinguished of the German Reformers, 
writes : 

" It is not only a superstition, but an apostasy 
from Christ, to think that working on the Lord's 
day, in itself considered, is a sinful thing" (Cox's 
Sabbath Laws, p. 289). 

Holland's Eeformer, ''the scholar of the Refor- 
mation," Erasmus, says : 

"It is meet, therefore, that the keeping of the 
Sabbath day give place to the commodity and 
profit of man" (Paraphrase on Mark). 



62 TESTIMONY OF DISTINGUISHED CHRISTIANS. 

Zwingle, the great Swiss Keformer, says : 

*'It is lawful on the Lord's day, after divine 
service, for any man to pursue his labors " (Cox's 
Sabbath Laws, p, 287). 

Beza uses the following language : 

*'No cessation of work on the Lord's day is 
required of Christians " (Ibid, p. 286). 

The greatest sticklers for Sabbath observance 
to-day are the Calvinists, yet John Calvin himself 
was opposed to it. Listen to his teachings: 

"The Fathers frequently call the command for 
the Sabbath a shadowy commandment, because it 
contains the external observance of the day which 
was abolished with the rest of the figures at the 

advent of Christ The same day which 

put an end to the shadows admonishes Christians 
not to adhere to a shadowy ceremony " (Calvin's 
Institutes, Book II., chap. viii). 

"Christians, therefore, should have nothing to 
do with a superstitious observance of days " (Ibid). 
"Thus vanish all the dreams of false prophets 
w^ho, in past ages, have infected the people with a 
Jewish notion, affirming that nothing but the cere- 
monial part of this commandment is abrogated ; 
but that the moral part of it — that is, the observ- 
ance of one day in seven — still remains. But this 
is only changing the day in contempt of the Jews, 



KNOX AND HESSEY. 53 

while retaining the same opinion of the holiness 
of a day " (Ibid). 

" Those who adopt it far exceed the Jews in a 
gross, carnal and superstitious observance of the 
Sabbath " (lb). 

Here are the seven great Eeformers of Conti- 
nental Europe, Luther, Melancthon, Bucer, Eras- 
mus, Zwingle, Beza, and Calvin, all repudiating the 
authority of the Christian Sabbath. 

It may startle Scotch Presbyterians to be told 
that John Knox entertained the same views, yet 
such was undoubtedly the case. Chambers's En- 
cyclopedia says : " It is a mistake to suppose that 
either Sabbatarianism or asceticism was recom- 
mended by Knox." 

Andrews says : " Though the foundation of the 
Presbyterian church of Scotland was laid by Knox, 
. . . . and though that church is now very 
strict in the observance of Sunday as the Sabbath, 
yet Knox himself was of Calvin's mind as to the 
observance of that day" (History of the Sabbath, 
p. 443). 

Dr. Hessey says : " Whatever the language 
held at present in Scotland may be [in regard to 
the Sabbath], it is certainly not owing to the great 
man whom the Scotch regard as the apostle of the 
Reformation in their country " (Bampton Lectures, 
p. 201). 



54 TESTIMONY OF DISTINGUISHED CHRISTIANS. 

Of tlie Reformers of England, Coleridge writes : 

" The English Reformers took the same view of 
the day as Luther and the early church " (Com- 
ments on Luther's Table Talk). 

William Tyndale, who gave to England one of 
the earliest and best translations of the Bible 
(Tyndale's Bible forms the basis of the present 
Protestant version), writes as follows : 

^'As to the Sabbath w^e be lords over, and 
may yet change it to Monday, or into any other 
day as we see need ; or we may make two 
every week, if it were expedient, and one not 
enough to teach the people. Neither needed we * 
any holy day at all, if the people might be 
taught without it" (Tyndale's Works, Book L, 
chap. xxv). 

The Protestant martyr. Archbishop Cranmer, 
says : 

" The Jews were commanded to keep the Sab- 
bath day, but we Christians are not bound to 
such commandments of Moses's law" (Cranmer's 
Catechism). 

John Frith, who assisted Tyndale in trans- 
lating the Bible, and who, like Tyndale and 
Cranmer, perished at the stake, thus holds this 
priestly institution up to scorn : 

'' We are in manner as superstitious in the 
Sunday as they [the Jews] are in the Saturday; 



THE EEFORMERS REPUDIATED THE SABBATH. 55 

yea, are we much madder; for the Jews have 
the word of God for their Saturday, since it is 
the seyenth day, and they are commanded to 
keep the seventh day solemn; and we have not 
the word of God for us, but rather against us, 
for we keep not the seventh day as the Jews 
do, but the first, which is not commanded by 
God's law " (Declaration of Baptism). 

Thus taught the founders of the Protestant 
church. Eeferring to this subject, the Kev. Dr. 
Hessey, in his Bampton Lectures, says : 

"The Eeformers were nearly unanimous on 
this point. Sabbatarianism of every phase was 
expressly repudiated by the chief Eeformers in 
almost every country." 

John Milton, the Christian poet and theolo- 
gian, gives the following testimony : 

'* Since, then, the Sabbath was originally an 
ordinance of the Mosaic law, since it was given 
to the Israelites alone, and that for the express 
purpose of distinguishing them from other na- 
tions, it follows that if those who live under the 
gospel are emancipated ^rom the ordinances of 
the law in general, least of all can they be con- 
sidered as bound by that of the Sabbath" (Chris- 
tian Doctrine, Book II., chap. vii). 

"The law of the Sabbath being thus repealed. 



56 TESTIMONY OF DISTINGUISHED CHRISTIANS. 

that no particular day of worship has been ap- 
pointed in its place is evident" (Ibid). 

" Under the gospel no one day is appointed 
for divine worship in preference to another, ex- 
cept snch as the church may set apart, of its 
own authority, for the voluntary assembling of 
its members" (Ibid). 

Dr. Heylyn, chaplain to Charles I., and an 
able authority upon the Sabbath question, says : 

*' Take which you will, either the Fathers or 
the moderns, and we shall find no Lord's day 
instituted by any apostolical mandate ; no Sab- 
bath set on foot by them upon the first day of 
the week" (History of the Sabbath, Part II., 
chap. i). 

Grotius, one of the greatest jurists and the- 
ologians of which the church can boast, thus 
testifies : 

"These things refute those who suppose that 
the first day of the week was substituted in 
place of the Sabbath, for no mention is ever 
made of such a thing by Christ or his apos- 
ties" (Annotations on Exodus). 

" "When the Apostle Paul says, Christians are 
not to be condemned on account of Sabbaths, etc. 
(Col. ii, 16), he shows that they were entirely 
free from the law ; which liberty would be of no 



TESTIMONY OF PALEY AJsD TAYLOK. 57 

effect, if, the law remaining, the day merely were 
changed" (Ibid). 

Archbishop Paley, who has written the mas- 
terpieces of Christian literature — whose works 
to-day constitute an arsenal from which the 
church draws her weapons of defense — argues as 
follows : 

" If the command by which the Sabbath was 
instituted be binding on Christians, it must be 
binding as - to the day, the duties, and the pen- 
alty; in none of which it is received. The ob- 
servance of the Sabbath was not one of the 
articles enjoined by the apostles" (Moral Phi- 
losophy, Book v., chap. vii). 

" The opinion that Christ and his apostles 
meant to retain the duties of the Jewish Sab- 
bath, shifting only the day from the seventh to 
the first, seems to prevail without sufficient 
reasons " (Ibid). 

''The resting on that day from our employ- 
ments, longer than we are detained from them by 
attendance upon these assemblies, is, to Chris- 
tians, an ordinance of human institution " (lb). 

Jeremy Taylor, the most eloquent divine that 
ever stood in a Christian pulpit, says : 

"The Lord's day did not succeed in the place 
of the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was wholly abro- 
gated " (Taylor's Works, vol. xii). 



58 TESTIMONY OF DISTINGUISHED CHRISTIANS. 

"The primitive Christians did all manner of 
works upon the Lord's day, even in times of per- 
secution, when they are the strictest observers of 
all the divine commandments. But in this they 
knew there was none ; and therefore when Con- 
stantine, the emperor, had made, an edict against 
working on the Lord's day, yet he expects, and 
still permitted to agriculture, the labors of the 
husbandman" (Ductor Dubitantium, Book IL, 
chap. ii). 

"That we are free from Sabbath observance, 
St. Paul expressly affirms in Colossians " (Ibid). 

Neander, the great ecclesiastical historian, 
writes as follows : 

" The festival of Sunday, like all other festivals, 
was always only a human ordinance, and it was 
far from the intention of the apostles to establish 
a divine command in this respect; far from them 
and from the early apostolic church to transfer 
the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday " (Church His- 
tory, Rose's trans., p. 186). 

The Eev. Dr. Barry, Canon of Worcester, and 
president of King's College, London, in a lecture 
says : 

" The notion of a formal substitution, by apos- 
tolic authority, of the Lord's day for the Jewish 
Sabbath . . . has no basis whatever in holy 
scripture or in Christian antiquity." 



WHATELY ON THE SABBATH. 59 

Bishop Warburton says : 

''The observance of the Sabbath is no more a 
natural duty than circumcision" (Divine Legation, 
Book IV., sec. 6). 

I quote next from the learned Archbishop 
Whately. I quote him at considerable length 
because his testimony covers several vital points 
in this controversy : 

'The dogma of the Assembly of divines at 
Westminster, that the observance of the Sabbath 
is a part of the moral law, is to me utterly unintel- 
ligible " (Essays), 

"It will be plainly seen on a careful examina- 
tion of the accounts given by the evangelists, that 
Jesus did decidedly and avowedly violate the 
Sabbath" (Ibid). 

" In saying that there is no mention of the 
Lord's day in the Mosaic law, I mean that there 
is not only no mention of that specific festival 
which Christians observe on the first day of the 
week, in memory of our Lord's resurrection on 
the morning following the Jewish Sabbath, but 
that there is no injunction to sanctify one day in 
seven throughout the whole of the Old Testa- 
ment. We never hear of keeping holy some one 
day in every seven, but the seventh day, the 
day on which 'God rested from all his labors.' 

" I cannot, therefore, but think the error was 



60 TESTIMONY OF DISTINGUISHED CHRISTIANS. 

less of those early Christians, who, conceiving the 
injunction relative to the Sabbath to be binding 
on them, obeyed it just as it was given, than those 
who, admitting the eternal obligation of the pre- 
cept, yet presume to alter it on the authority of 
tradition. Surely if we allow that the tradition 
of the church is competent to change the express 
commands of God, we are falling into one of the 
most dangerous errors of the Romanists. But in 
the present case, there is not even any tradition 
to the purpose. It is not merely that the apostles 
left us no command perpetuating the observance 
of the Sabbath, and transferring the day from 
the seventh to the first. Such a change certainly 
would have been authorized by their express in- 
junction, and by nothing short of that ; since an 
express divine command can be changed or altered 
only by the same power and the same distinct 
revelation by which it was delivered. But not 
only is there no apostolic injunction, than which 
nothing less would be sufficient, there is not even 
any tradition of their having made such a change ; 
nay, more, it is even abundantly plain that they 
made no such change " (Notes on Paul). 

William Penn, the Christian founder of Penn- 
sylvania, says : 

" To call any day of the week a Christian Sab- 
bath is iiot Christian but Jewish." 



WHY SABBATH-KEEPING IS ENFORCED. 61 

The Eev. Dr. James Freeman Clarke, in an 
article which appeared in the *' North American 
Review " some years ago, thus truthfully observes : 

** Scholars are now generally agreed that the 
Sabbath obligation was not transferred by Christ 
or his apostles to the first day ; that there is not 
in the Christian scriptures [New Testament] a 
single command to keep the Sabbath in any form 
or on any day." 

Such is the testimony that I bring to prove 
the claims of Sabbatarians false — to show that 
he who deals in pious twaddle about '' Sabbath 
desecration " is a knave, or else 

** Most ignorant of what he's most assured." 

The testimony that I bring is not the testimony 
of the enemies of Christianity, but of its friends 
— of its most learned, most loyal, and most hon- 
orable defenders. To impeach these witnesses is 
to impeach the most eminent characters in Chris- 
tian history. 

And now, in the face of all this evidence, 
why is it that the church so zealously persists 
in imposing this fraudulent institution upon the 
people ? I will tell you why : It is to fill her 
empty pews, and line the pockets of her priests. She 
would close every public library and reading- 
room^ every place of innocent amusement; she 



62 ABROGATION OF SUNDAY LAWS. 

would veil the face of art, and silence the tongue 
of music ; she would hide from our gaze, wdth all 
their ennobling influences, the beauties of nature 
— the blue sea, placid streams, and silvery foun- 
tains — green fields and shady groves — bright 
flowers and warbling birds — in short, she would 
barricade every avenue to social enjoyment and 
rational happiness on this day, and make for us 
a gloomy prison of her Sabbath, with her places 
of public worship for our prison-yard. 



ABEOGATION OF SUNDAY LAWS. 

We boast of the civil and religious liberty 
guaranteed by the Constitution of the United 
States. But if individual states, in the interest 
of a particular religion, are permitted to trample 
this liberty under foot, of what value is it ? 

The Constitution declares that "Congress shall 
make no law respecting an establishment of re- 
ligion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." 
The supreme law of the land also declares that 
" the government of the United States is not 
in any sense founded on the Christian religion" 
(Treaty with Tripoli). 

To enforce the observance of the Christian 
Sabbath upon those who refuse to accept the re- 



JUDICIAL DECISIONS. 63 

ligious system of which, it is a part is a subver- 
sion of the principles upon which our government 
is based. The government has nothing to do 
with religious beliefs and institutions. Yet, not- 
withstanding this, the statute books of nearly 
every state in the Union are disgraced by laws 
recognizing the authority of this religious insti- 
tution. 

The Supreme Court of Ohio and other courts 
have decided that the observance of the Christian 
Sabbath, as such, cannot be legally enforced; that 
all Sunday laws must be recognized as mere 
police regulations, instituted because of their sup- 
posed sanitary benefits, and deriving no authority 
whatever from any sanctity attached to the day. 
All religious services conducted on Sunday, and 
particularly the preaching for money — and what 
clergyman preaches without it? — are therefore a 
violation of these laws ; for while the authority 
of the Mosaic law is not generally acknowledged, 
the obligations of these Sunday laws are yet sup- 
posed to be identical with those imposed by the 
Fourth Commandment. The way in which these 
obligations are obeyed by Christians is thus ex- 
pressed by one of Boston's ablest divines, Kev. 
Minot J. Savage : 

" The whole of the Fourth Commandment, with- 
out any evidence of any reservation whatever, the 



64 ABBOGATION OF SUNDAY LAWS. 

totality of the Fourth Commandment, is simply 
abstinence from labor. Now I dare assert, with- 
out fear of contradiction, that except in some few 
special cases there is not an orthodox minister 
or church-member in Boston, unless he is sick so 
that he cannot move easily, who ever thinks of 
obeying the Fourth Commandment, or ever does 
it. What is it they do? Why, they have in- 
vented a whole round of duties — church-going, 
Sunday-school, everything, against which, mark 
me, I have no word to sa}^ ; but I say they have 
invented a whole round of duties, a whole curric- 
ulum of obligations, lasting from sunrise to sun- 
set in many cases" (History of Sunday Observ- 
ance). 

If these laws contain provisional clauses per- 
mitting the performance of these religious duties, 
then these provisos, so far as they go, relate to 
the establishment of a religion and are opposed 
to the spirit of the Constitution. 

But Christians will claim, and very properly, 
too, that any law interfering with the free exer- 
cise of religious duties is likewise an infringe- 
ment of the rights guaranteed by the Constitu- 
tion. But who is to determine what are, and 
what are not, religious duties? Has the state a 
right to appoint a tribunal for this purpose ? No 
more than it has to establish a state religion. 



BATIONAL SUNDAY AMUSEMENT. 65 

The conceptions of religion and of religions dnties 
are as varied as the forms and colors reflected in 
the kaleidoscope. We are acquainted with the 
dogmas of the orthodox religion. Thousands of 
priests are employed to publish them. But the 
orthodox religion is not the only religion in this 
country. There are those whose religion consists 
not of creeds, but of deeds ; there are those with 
whom honest industry is itself religion, and work 
is worship ; there are those who believe that 
pleasures which for the time shall chase away dull 
care and fill the soul with gladness, that athletic 
games and sports which bring the roses to the 
cheek and vigor to the frame, that these too are 
religious duties. 

The orthodox Christian and his family go to 
church on Sunday, where, in a stifling atmosphere, 
they sing, and pray, and listen to a prosy sermon, 
and perchance sleep. They believe this to be a 
religious duty, and the privilege of performing 
this duty is not denied them. And if the Liberal 
Christian or Eationalist, on a summer's Sunday, 
desires to take his wife and children from the 
heat and dust of the city to the seaside, or to the 
grove, where they may watch the wild waves play 
or listen to the music of the birds, where they 
may breathe the pure, sweet air, where they may 
feast on nature's beauties, may drink the over- 



66 ABROGATION OF SUNDAY LAWS. 

flowing cup of joy, and fill their hearts with sun- 
shine — when by a day thus spent they are made 
happier and better — what right have you, religious 
bigot, what right have you, political demagogue, 
to say that this is not a religious duty and must 
not be allowed ? 

We are told that man's physical nature de- 
mands the Sabbatic rest — that medical men have 
attested the truth of this. That an institution 
possessing the power and wealth that priestcraft 
does should be able to produce a doctor's certifi- 
cate when needed is not strange. But the physi- 
cian who seriously contends that man's physical 
nature demands the observance of the Sabbath 
is better qualified for a doctor of divinity than 
for a doctor of medicine. As well might he con- 
tend that man's physical nature demands a feast 
every seventh day. Man's physical nature re- 
quires both food and rest, but it requires them, 
not once a week, but every day. Ask the labor- 
ing man whether he feels better fitted for work 
on Monday morning, after passing Sunday in idle- 
ness, than he does on Saturday morning, after five 
days' labor, and he will tell you, "No." With the 
fatiguing kinds of labor, a man will accomplish 
as much in a week by working every day and 
working but eight hours a day as he will working 
six days a week and working ten hours a day. 



PARKER PILLSBURY ON THE SABBATH. 67 

Dr. George W. Brown, an intelligent physi- 
cian, and a man of broad experience and observa- 
tion, says that laboring men " may desire rest for 
social or literary pleasures, or to look after family 
or personal affairs, but they are not invigorated 
by a day's relaxation, neither are they better quali- 
fied to endure next week's toil" (The Sunday Ques- 
tion). 

"In the state of nature," says Parker Pills- 
bury, "neither men nor animals know nor care 
anything about days of rest " (The Sabbath). 

At a convention held in Boston, William Lloyd 
Garrison said : " The Sabbath is not necessary for 
man or beast. "Who says it is, is but the over- 
worker of himself and beast " (Christian Advocate). 

But in rejecting a popular fallacy I do not wish 
to be understood as advocating the ceaseless round 
of seven days' work a week. The laws regulating 
man's physical being do not demand abstinence 
from labor one day in seven ; but if by surcease 
of toil on Sunday his happiness can be promoted 
or his intellect improved ; if he may devote the 
day to innocent recreation or to the acquisition 
of useful knowledge, it is a blessing which no 
lover of his race will deny. But to enjoy the 
fruits of this blessing it must be free. The veil 
of sanctity which scheming priests have thrown 



68 ABROGATION OF SUNDAY LAWS. 

over it must be removed, and the obnoxious laws 
enforcing its observance be repealed. 

This argument of Sabbath observance being a 
physical necessity is the last resort of the clergy. 
When the falsity of their theological claims re- 
garding Sunday is exposed, and their holy Sab- 
bath shown to be an unholy fraud, then they be- 
gin to whine about the " poor laborer " — that it is 
in behalf of the laboring classes they advocate the 
observance of Sunday. It is true that the labor- 
ing classes do need rest ; they ought to have far 
more rest than they get ; and were it not for 
priestcraft, were it not for this vast army of priests 
and preachers which they have to support, they 
would be able to obtain it. But who is to deter- 
mine when they are tired, their neighbor or them- 
selves? Who knows best when I need rest, my 
neighbor or myself? I have as much right to 
tell my Christian neighbor when he shall work as 
he has to tell me when I shall rest; I have as 
much right, in justice, to compel him to work on 
Sunday as he has to compel me to rest on Sunday. 

It is remarkable that the efforts of these men 
to secure rest for the working classes should be 
confined to Sunday. Is Sunday rest the only rest 
they need? Under the very eyes of the clergy 
street-car drivers labor sixteen hours a day ; under 
the very eyes of the clergy shop girls toil from 



THE QUESTION OF BELAXATION. 69 

seven o'clock in the morning until ten at night ; 
under the very eyes of the clergy factory children 
work twelve hours a day. What have they done 
to ameliorate the condition of these classes and 
save them from this overwork ? If they paid less 
attention to the manner in which the toiling 
masses spend their Sundays, and manifested more 
concern for their welfare during the remainder of 
the week, the world would give them greater credit 
for sincerity. 

But what, in its true sense, is rest? To the 
farmer who follows the plow, and to the laborer 
who works in the open air all week, the observance 
of these laws is, in most cases, rest. But to the 
thousands of mechanics and laborers confined in 
shops and factories, to the thousands of clerks and 
accountants confined at the desk or behind the 
counter, to the thousands of teachers and to the 
millions of school-children confined in the school- 
room, these laws do not provide a rest, but impose 
upon them an irksome task. Without these laws 
all might rest on Sunday who desire to ; with them, 
millions are compelled either to abstain from what 
to them is rest or seek it in defiance of law. 

The real character of these Sabbatarian laws 
is little understood by the general public. Refer- 
ring to the Sunday laws of Massachusetts, Charles 
E. Pratt, a Massachusetts lawyer, says : 



70 ABROGATION OF SUNDAY LAWS. 

**' The statute law to-day prohibits almost every- 
thing, though it directly compels the active per- 
formance of nothing. It prohibits all recreation, 
amusement, exercise, walking, riding, driving, travel- 
ing, hospitality, social intercourse, educational or 
scientific or literary occupation " (Sunday in the 
Massachusetts Law). 

What is true of Massachusetts is true to a 
greater or less extent of nearly every state in the 
Union. 

Were the authorities to begin and persist in a 
strict enforcement of these laws, their repeal would 
be prompt and complete. Not generally enforced, 
they are permitted to linger upon our statute books. 
But the fact that they are to a great extent a dead 
letter makes the injustice of them all the greater. 
It is safe to say that twenty million people in this 
country violate them every Sunday. Of these Sab- 
bath-breakers, perhaps twenty — one in one million 
— and these among the least culpable, are prose- 
cuted. There is no more justice in this than there 
would be to levy an enormous tax upon a com- 
munity, collect the shares of a few individuals, and 
let the balance go unpaid. 

These Sunday laws are simply instruments of 
persecution placed in the hands of malicious bigots 
by the state with which to attack their more 
worthy neighbors. 



OUTKAGES ON LIBERTY. 71 

In Connecticut, two years ago, a small party of 
men, women, and children left their homes on a 
Sunday morning to spend the day among the trees 
and flowers and birds of a neighboring wood. They 
were arrested on the way and compelled to drive 
into a barnyard, where they w^ere kept for hours. 
A rain came up in the mean time, and although 
one of them w^as a woman in feeble health, shelter 
was refused. 

In 1874, a man in Brookline, Mass., on Sunday 
helped his wife to arrange some flowers in a win- 
dow. A charming scene, methinks, one but too 
rarely witnessed ! And yet this picture of home 
and love w^as marred by the policeman's club. 
The man was taken before a magistrate and fined. 

A little later, Mr. G. W. Carpenter, a friend 
of mine, and a most estimable man, removed 
from Michigan to Montague, Texas. He was 
obliged to move into an unfinished house, and, 
to protect his sick wife from a cold north wind, 
put up a door on Sunday. For this ''desecration 
of the Sabbath" he was prosecuted and fined. 

Had these men left their wives at home alone 
that day — had they spent the day in gambling, 
drunkenness, and debauchery — they probably 
w^ould not have been molested. 

In all countries and states where Sunday laws 
exist, works of charity and necessity are supposed 



72 ABROGATION OF SUNDAY LAWS. 

to be allowed. But what are works of charity 
and necessity? What are consideied works of 
charity and necessity by one will not be con- 
sidered such by another. One may esteem all 
legitimate labor a work of necessity, regardless 
of the day on which it is performed; another 
may entertain serious doubts as to whether we 
ought to be allowed to breathe on Sunday. 

In the autumn of 1876, Queen Victoria, while 
out on a Sunday drive, visited a party of fifty 
men and women engaged in harvesting. She 
gave it her approval, saying that it was a work 
of necessity. About the same time a Massa- 
chusetts court declared that procuring medicine 
for a sick child on Sunday was not a work of 
necessity (Massachusetts Eeports, cxvii, 65). 

A year ago a party of young men at Winne- 
conne, Wis., cut six cords of wood for a poor 
widow on Sunday. About the same time, Mr. 
John McGuire, of Modoc Landing, Ark., opened 
his store on Sunday and distributed a quantity 
of government rations to a lot of half -famished 
flood-sufferers. In the eyes of sensible people, 
both acts were in a high degree commendable. 
But while the work of the young men was simply 
a work of charity, that of Mr. McGuire, it would 
seem, was not only a work of charity, but of 
necessity. Both states have bigoted Sabbatarian 



THE RICH AND THE POOR. 73 

laws, and both, abound with. Sabbatarian bigots. 
But Mr. McGuire, the one least deserving of 
censure, if either were censurable, alone felt their 
yengeance. He was compelled to pay a fine. 

Whom do these laws affect most grievously — 
the rich, or the poor? It is the poor upon whom 
the burden chiefly falls. The man of wealth and 
leisure, surfeited with pleasure all the week, can 
well afford to rest on Sunday ; the poor man, 
obliged to labor all the week, has no other day 
but this to spare for pleasure. You stop the 
street-cars on Sunday. The rich man in his car- 
riage rolls .along at ease, the poor man and his 
family must go on foot, or stay at home. You 
stop the milk-cart on Sunday. The wealthy, with 
their better conveniences, with their cellars and 
refrigerators, procure a supply on Saturday even- 
ing, and keep it over Sunday ; the poor, destitute 
of these conveniences, cannot. You close the art 
gallery, the museum, the library, and the reading- 
room on Sunday. To the wealthy this is a matter 
of little consequence, for they have access to them 
all the week; the poor, engrossed with toil, have 
not. 

In 1876 the Centennial Exhibition was held in 
Philadelphia. At the bidding of the clergy the 
managers closed it on Sunday. Seventy thousand 
laborers, mechanics, and business men knocked at 



74 ABROGATION OF SUNDAY LAWS. 

its doors and petitioned for admittance ; but their 
petition was spurned. Throughout that long sum- 
mer the institution was closed on Sunday. What 
might have been a glorious Sunday-school for the 
workingmen of Philadelphia and their families 
was interdicted that clerical monopolists might 
have full sway. 

In priest-ridden Toronto, in the name of law, 
little newsboys have been robbed of the pennies 
needed to support their widowed mothers — robbed 
at the instigation of the clergy who coin their 
living on this day. Think of it ! a hundred able- 
bodied men, claiming to be educated, claiming to 
be respectable, claiming to be honest — backed by 
the wealth and influence of a hundred churches- 
pretending to be backed by an omnipotent God 
— think of these men compelling the municipal 
authorities to drive these little boys from an 
honest and useful avocation, for fear their busi- 
ness shall be injured ! 

These are the men who deprecate Sabbath- 
breaking — men who themselves violate the law 
they profess to uphold. The Bible says, '^ Six 
days shalt thou labor;" and yet the very men 
who are for the most part idle six days, and 
then labor on the very day on which they claim 
we should abstain from labor — these are the men 



TEiE CONTINENTAL SUNDAY. 75 

who shout themselves hoarse about the " dese- 
cration of the Sabbath." 

But while the orthodox clergy are almost 
unanimous in their support of these Sunday laws, 
the Liberal wing of the Christian ministry, pos- 
sessing the heart and brains of the clerical pro- 
fession, is opposed to them. One of these men, 
the Rev. William Channing Gannett, thus honestly 
and bravely speaks : 

"There is nothing to warrant prohibition on 
the one day more than on the six days. Relig- 
ious predilection has no place here. Feelings 
may be annoyed, tendencies may be deplored ; 
but feelings, tastes, regrets of this kind, are pri- 
vate luxuries, and neither you nor I may force 
such privacies upon another as fetters on his 
action. . . . The church-goers have no more 
right to say to the riders, and the ball-players, 
and the show-seekers, ' Stop ! ' than these latter 
have to say to the church-goers, 'Don't you go!'" 
(The Workingman's Sunday). 

In continental Europe, where the Puritan Sab- 
bath never gained a foothold, and especially in 
enlightened Germany and France, this Sunday 
slavery is little known. Sunday there is a day of 
joy, rather than a day of gloom. 

The Eev. Dr. Guthrie, of Scotland, after a visit 
to the French capital, thus writes : " We counted, 



76 ABROGATION OF SUNDAY LAWS. 

on one occasion, in Paris, tliirty-three theaters 
and places of amusement open on the Sabbath 
day." Leaving France and her Sunday holiday, 
he returned to Great Britain, the home of the 
Puritan Sabbath. No theaters, no places of 
amusement, were open here. The church alone 
was permitted to do business on this day. But 
what does this rigid Sabbath observance do for 
the morals of his people? This sad admission 
drops from his pen : " In one hour we saw in 
London and Edinburgh, with all their churches 
and schools and piety, more drunkenness than we 
saw in five long months in guilty Paris." 

The Eev. Dr. Wooley, of England, visited Ger- 
many, and, after describing the happy manner in 
which Sunday is spent by the Germans, says: 
" Nothing can exceed the picturesque beauty of 
the scene except its moral beauty. We often 
sadly contrasted the cheerful, contented faces 
around us with the careworn, haggard look of the 
same classes of our countrymen ; often wished 
that we too were taught to worship God with 
the natural homage of thankful enjoyment." 

Protestants charge Catholics with lack of loy- 
alty — with holding allegiance to a foreign eccle- 
siastical power. Are Protestants themselves less 
guilty? 

It has been declared that the Fourth of July 



REALLY SACKED DAYS DISHONORED. 77 

shall be a national holiday, that on it each year 
we may celebrate the anniversary of our nation's 
birth. But Sunday is esteemed by them too 
sacred to celebrate the birth of Freedom ; and 
when this anniversary occurs on Sunday, Jefferson 
and his associates must not be eulogized, the 
Declaration of Independence must not be read, 
but the edict of slavery promulgated by Constan- 
tine must be obeyed. 

The thirtieth of May has been dedicated to 
the memory of the dead soldiers of the Republic. 
But when this day falls on Sunday, and the sur- 
viving comrades of our fallen defenders proceed 
to decorate their graves with flags and flowers, 
Protestant clergymen protest against it, because a 
Catholic emperor and the Catholic church, whom 
they profess to despise, once consecrated the day 
to the service of priestcraft. The fraudulent in- 
stitution of an enemy, because it serves their 
selfish interests, is divine, so divine that even the 
strewing of flowers upon dead heroes' graves is 
sacrilege. 

Last winter the monument erected to "Washing- 
ton was completed. It was decided, as was most 
fitting, to have the ceremonies attending its com- 
pletion held on the anniversary of his birth. His 
birthday fell on Sunday, and the ceremonies were 
held on another day. The natal day of "Washing- 



78 ABROGATION OF SUNDAY LAWS. 

ton was ignored and dishonored that the authority 
of a Roman cut-throat might be recognized and 
honored. 

Against the recognition and enforcement of this 
ecclesiastical institution by legal enactment every 
honest man and woman should protest. No Free- 
thinker can conscientiously sanction it. No Chris- 
tian, who is willing to " do unto others as he would 
that others should do to him," who is willing to 
concede to others the same rights he claims for 
himself, can demand it. Let him keep sacred the 
first day of the week, or Sunday, if he desires to ; 
it is his privilege. 

There is also a respectable portion of our peo- 
ple, comprising Jews, Adventists, and Seventh Day 
Baptists, w^ho believe in observing the seventh day 
of the week, or Saturday. They are sincere in 
this belief; it is a part of their religion, and let 
them observe it. To compel the Christian to ab- 
stain from labor on this day simply because his 
Jewish neighbors keep it would be unjust ; and I 
ask if it is not equally unjust to require these 
people to keep the Christian Sabbath? It may 
be urged that they are not required to do so. I 
am aware that the more enlightened public senti- 
ment is opposed to such coercion ; I am aware that 
the laws of many states permit them to pursue 
their avocations on this day when they have kept 



DR. franklin's remark. 79 

the Bible Sabbath. But there are states where 
this is not the case. In Pennsylvania, for instance, 
the Jew who labors on the Christian Sabbath is 
subject to fine and imprisonment, no matter how 
faithfully he may have kept his own. The laws 
of Massachusetts, as interpreted by the Supreme 
Court of that state, declare that those who observe 
the seventh day shall be allowed to do business 
on Sunday — and fined if they open their doors for 
this purpose. Time is money and to thus with- 
hold from these people one-seventh of their time 
is robbery. 

Again, while "one man esteemeth one day 
above another, another esteemeth every day alike ;" 
all days are sacred days to him ; and is it reason- 
able to compel him to affect a special reverence for 
either the first or the seventh day? Is he made 
any better, or is the world made any better, by 
this enforced hypocrisy ? 

Dr. Franklin once expressed the belief that God 
cared less about Sabbath-breaking than a New 
England justice. And this recalls an incident that 
occurred in an Eastern village many years ago. 
The inhabitants of the village were all very pious. 
One old deacon, named Sharpe, affected to be par- 
ticularly pious. His neighbors, however, generally 
regarded him as a hj^pocrite, and even the mem- 
bers of his own church had no little contempt for 



80 ABROGATION OF SUNDAY LAWS. 

him. Notwithstanding this they were all afraid of 
him ; because, for every delinquency in their con- 
duct, Sharpe was sure to bring them up before 
the church. It chanced one cold Sunday after- 
noon that Smith, a brother in the church, ran out 
of wood. What should he do ? He must have 
wood. So he slipped quietly out of the back door, 
proceeded cautiously to the wood pile, picked up 
his axe, looked around him to see that the coast 
was clear, and went to work. He chopped his 
wood, and was just starting into the house with 
an armful of it, when some one from the street ex- 
claimed, " Halloo, Smith ! " Smith dropped his 
wood in an instant, and looked up. " What, 
Thompson, is that you ? " said he, " I thought it 
was Sharpe ; I don't want him to see me chopping 
wood on Sunday." "What," said Thompson, 
"afraid of Sharpe, and not of God? Don't you 
suppose God saw you chopping that wood ? " 
"Well, yes, I suppose he did," rejoined Smith, 
"but then he won't make as much fuss about it as 
old Sharpe." It is the same with these advocates 
of Sunday observance ; they are making a great 
ado about Sabbath-breaking ; their Deity is making 
none. 

The state has no right to imprison its citizens 
on Sunday in order that the church may drug 
them with superstition and rob them. If theology 



EQUAL RIGHTS. 81 

is free on Sunday, I demand that Intelligence and 
Pleasure shall also be free ; that the temple of 
Knowledge may open its doors as well as the 
temple of Ignorance ; that the man of reason on 
the rostrum shall have an opportunity to tell 
what he knows as well as the man of faith in the 
pulpit has to tell what he doesn't know; that the 
facts of to-day may be given to the public in the 
Sunday paper as well as the fictions of yesterday 
in the Sunday sermon ; that the marble and canvas 
of the art gallery may be looked upon as well as 
the images and pictures of the cathedral ; that the 
band shall have as valid a right to entertain the 
people with inspiring music on Sunday evening as 
the church has to disturb their rest with the harsh 
clangor of her bells on Sunday morning ; that the 
young folks shall have the same liberty to dance 
at the picnic that the old folks have to shout at 
camp-meeting; that the clown in the tent shall 
have a right to amuse the public as well as the 
clown in the tabernacle. 

If a legislative body were to enact a law re- 
quiring all persons, save the clergy, to sit in the 
stocks, to stand in the pillory, to wear shackles, 
or to be imprisoned one day in seven, that law 
would be looked upon with amazement ; yet not 
with more amazement than that with which our de- 
scendants a century hence would look upon a 



82 ABEOGATION OF SUNDAY LAWS. 

re-enactment of our Sabbatarian laws, which, hap- 
pily for humanity, have not long to survive. 

Desperate and persistent are the efforts now 
being made by the evangelical clergy to retain 
and enforce these laws. They know full well that 
with their abrogation the strongest pillar of 
priestcraft falls. But they are contending against 
the inevitable. Their efforts must fail in the end, 
and the political party that champions them will 
find a deeper grave than the old Whig party 
found ; for the intelligent and liberty-loving por- 
tion of our people are determined that the Decla- 
ration of freedom and equality promulgated by 
the fathers of '76, and the bulwark of constitu- 
tional liberty reared by the fathers of '87, shall 
be our equity and law, and they will not com- 
promise their rights by wearing the collar of a 
slave for even one day in seven. 

Yes, these laws must go. They are not needed. 
Justice is not subserved in their enforcement. 
"Whatever is a crime or misdemeanor on Monday 
is a crime or misdemeanor on Sunday ; and what- 
ever is lawful on Monday cannot in justice be 
unlawful on Sunday. Let the people of this 
country enjoy that entire civil and religious free- 
dom which the genius of their Constitution 
guarantees them. Let each one determine for 
himself, not only which shall be his sacred day, 



HANDS OFF. 83 

but also in what manner it shall be observed. 
Let those who deem it their duty to set apart 
one day in seven for religious worship, do so ; 
let those who desire to devote a day to rest or 
study, do so ; and let those who see proper to 
appropriate a day, no matter what that day may 
be, to pleasure and recreation, do so. If the day 
be Sunday, let them step forth from this Puri- 
tanical prison into the grand palace of Nature — 
not as escaped convicts, liable to have their 
reputations brained by a statutory club in the 
hand of some brutal magistrate, but as free peo- 
ple, serene with the consciousness of not having 
committed even an artificial wrong. 

Let those who wish to make Sunday the sad- 
dest, dreariest day of all the seven, enjoy the 
''blessed privilege," but let them keep their med- 
dling fingers from off those who would make it 
the brightest, sweetest, happiest day. 



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The Brain and the Bible. By Edgar C. Beall. With 

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The Holy Bible Abridged. Containing the choice 
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TRUTH SEEKER CO:S PUBLICATION'S. 13 



TRUTH SEEKER TRACTS. 
[Please Order by Numlber.] 

No. Oents. 

1 Discussion on Prayer. Bennett and others 8 

7 The Story of Creation. Bennett 5 

8 The Old Snake Story. '' 2 

9 The Story of the Flood. '' 5 

10 The Plagues of Egypt. '' 2 

11 Korah, Datham, and Abiram. Bennett 2 

12 Balaam and his Ass. " 2 

13 Arraignment of Priestcraft. " 8 

14 Old Abe and Little Ike. Syphers 3 

15 Come to Dinner. '' 2 

16 Fog Horn Documents. " 2 

17 The Devil Still Ahead. " !...'!*/.! 2 

18 Slipped Up Again. '' 2 

19 Joshua Stopping the Sun and Moon. Bennett 2 

20 Samson and his Exploits. Bennett 2 

21 The Great Wrestling Match. '' 2 

22 Discussion with Elder Shelton. Bennett. ..'.*. .* .' .* ! * \ \ \ [ 10 

23 Eeply to Elder Shelton's Fourth Letter. D. M. Bennett* 3 

24 Christians at Work. Wm. McDonnell 5 

25 Discussion with George Snode. Bennett !.'.!!.' 5 

26 Underwood's Prayer , ...,.,/,,.., 1 

27 Honest Questions and Honest Answers. Bennett! ...\\ ^ 

28 Alessandro di Cagliostro. C. Sotheran , .'.*.*. 10 

29 Paine Hall Dedication Address. Underwood! ! ! ! ! ! ! . ! ! ^ 

30 Woman's Eights and Man's Wrongs. Syphers*. ! ! ! '. ! ! ! *. 2 

31 Gods and God-Houses 2 

32 The Gods of Superstition and the God of the* ilniver'se. 

Bennett 8 

33 What has Christianity Done? Preston. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! . 3 

34 Tribute to Thomas Paine !!!!!!!!!!!!!.*! 2 

35 Moving the Ark. Bennett. !*.!!!*!*!'.!*.« 2 

36 Bennett's Prayer to the Devil !...!..!... 2 

37 Short Sermon. Eev. Theologicus, D.D. ! !!!!!!!! ! ! ! ! ! ! 2 

38 Christianity not a Moral System. X.Y.Z 2 

39 The True Saint. S. P. Putnam 1 

40 Bible of Nature versus the Bible of Men. John Syphers. 2 

41 Our Ecclesiastical Gentry. Bennett 1 
r2 Elijah the Tishbite. ^^ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ [ \ \ \ \ \ [ 3 

43 Christianity a Borrowed System. ^* !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3 

44 Design Argument Eefuted. Underwood 3 

45 Elisha the Prophet. Bennett 3 

46 Did Jesus Beally Exist? '' !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 2 

47 Cruelty and Credulity of the Human Eace. Dr. Daniel 

Alter,,.,,,,, 3 



14 TRUTH SEEKER dO: S PUBLlCATIOl^^. 

48 Freethought in the West. G. L. Henderson 5 

49 Sensible Conclusions. E. E. Guild 5 

50 Jonah and the Big Fish. Bennett 3 

51 Sixteen Truth Seeker Leaflets. No. 1 5 

52 Marples-Underwood Debate. Underwood 3 

53 Questions for Bible Worshipers. " 2 

54 An Open Letter to Jesus Christ. Benaett 5 

55 The Bible God Disproved by Nature. W. E. Coleman. 8 

56 Bible Contradictions 1 

57 Jesus not a Perfect Character. Underwood 2 

58 Prophecies. Underwood 2 

59 Bible Prophecies Concerning Babylon. Underwood 2 

60 Ezekiel's Prophecies Concerning Tyre. " 2 

61 History of the Devil. Isaac Paden 5 

62 The Jews and their God 10 

63 The Devil's Due-Bills. John Syphers 3 

64 The Ills we Endure— Their Cause and Cure. Bennett. . 5 

65 Short Sermon No. 2. Eev. Theologicus, D.D 2 

m God Idea in History. H. B. Brown 2 

67 Sixteen Truth Seeker Leaflets. No. 2 5 

68 Kuth's Idea of Heaven and Mine. Susan H. Wixon 2 

69 Missionaries. Mrs. E. D. Slenker 2 

70 Vicarious Atonement. J. S. Lyon 3 

71 Paine's Anniversary. C. A. Codman 2 

72 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Bennett. 2 

73 Foundations. John Sypliiers 2 

74 Daniel in the Lion's Den. Bennett 2 

75 An Hour with the Devil. " 10 

76 Keply to Erastus F. Brown. D. M. Bennett 3 

77 The Fear of Death. D. M. Bennett 5 

78 Christmas and Cristianity. D. M. Bennett 5 

79 The Kelationship of Jesus, Jehovah, and the Virgin 

Mary W. E. Coleman 2 

80 Address on Paine's 139th Birthday. Bennett 5 

81 Hereafter, or the Half-way House. Syphers 2 

82 Christian Courtesy. D. M. Bennett 1 

83 Eevivalism Examined. Dr. A. G. Humphrey 5 

84 Moody's Sermon on Hell. Rev. J. P. H©pps, London. . 2 
§5 Matter, Motion, Life, and Mind. Bennett 10 

86 An Inquiry About God's Sons. D. M. Bennett. 2 

87 Freethought Judge by its Fruits. Underwood 1 

88 David, God's Peculiar Favorite. E. D. Slenker 2 

89 Logic of Prayer. Charles Stephenson 3 

90 Biblo-Mania. Otto Cordates 2 

91 Our Ideas of God. B. F. Underwood \ ,'\ 1 

92 The Bible; is it Divinely Inspired? Dr. D. Arter 3 

93 Obtaining Pardon for Sins. Hudson Tuttle 1 

94 The New Eaven. Will Cooper 5 

95 Jesus Christ. Bennett 10 

96 Ichabod Crane Papers 10 



TRUTE SEEKER CO:S PUBLICATIONS. 15 

97 Special Providences. W. S. Bell 2 

98 Snakes. Mrs E. D. Slenker 2 

99 Do the Works of Nature Prove a Creator? Sciota 2 

100 140tli Anniversary of Thomas Paine's Birthday. Bennett 

etals 5 

102 The Old Religion and the New. W. S. BeU 2 

103 Does the Bible Teach us all we Know? Bennett 1 

104 Evolution of Israel's God. A. L. Eawson 10 

105 Decadence of Christianity. Capphro 2 

106 Franklin, Washington, and Jefferson Unbelievers. Ben- 

nett 2 

107 The Safe Side. H. B. Brown 5 

108 The Holy Bible a Historical Humbug. Preston 2 

110 Invocation to the Universe. Bennett 1 

111 Reply to Scientific American. Bennett 1 

112 Sensible Sermon. Rev. M. J. Savage 2 

113 Come to Jesus. Bennett 2 

114 Where Was Jesus Born? S. H. Preston 1 

115 The Wonders of Prayer. Bennett 2 

116 The Sunday Question. Bennett 2 

117 Constantine the Great. S. H. Preston 3 

118 The Irrepressible Conflict between Christianity and 

Civilization. W. S. Bell 5 

119 The New Faith. Stoddard 3 

120 The New Age. W. S. Bell 10 

121 IngersoU's Review of his Reviewers 3 

122 The Great Religions of the World. Bennett lo 

123 Paine Vindicated. Ingersoll and the Observer 10 

124 Sinful Saints. Bennett jO 

125 German Liberalism. Clara Neymann 2 

126 Crijnes and Cruelties of Christianity. B. F. Underwood. 10 

127 Tyndall on Man's Soul 5 

129 Who was Jesus Christ? Coleman 2 

130 The Ethics of Religion. Clifford 5 

131 Paine was Junius. W. H. Burr 3 

132 My Religious Belief. Ella E. Gibson 1 

133 The Authority of the Bible. Underwood 3 

134 Talks with the Evangelists 5 

135 Is There a Future Life? Bennett, 3 

136 Torquemada and the Inquisition. Bennett 3 

137 Christian Love. C. L. James 3 

138 Science of the Bible. John Jasper. 2 

139 Massacre of St. Bartholomew. S. H, Preston 3 

140 Astro-Theology 5 

141 Infidelity. H. W. Beecher \.,,\\\\\\,\ 2 

142 Synopsis of All Religions. E. L. Saxon 10 

143 Chang Wau Ho. Eli Perkins 2 

144 The Comstock Laws 1q 

145 If You Take Away My Religion, What Will You Give Me 

Instead? Martin , XO 



16 TRUTH SEEKER CO:S PUBLICATIONS. 

146 Seymore Times Prayer „ o . . . . 2 

147 Reply to the Index on Comstock Laws lO- 

148 When Did Paul Live? Scholasticus 2 

149 Age of Shams 3 

150 The Liberty of Printing and Reply. Hurlbnt and Wake- 

man 10 

151 What is the Bible? M. W H 5 

152 A Remarkable Book. R. W. Douglas 2 

153 Liberty and Morality. M. D. Conway 5 

154 Reminiscences of Thomas Paine. David Bruce 3 

155 Co-operation the Redeemer of Society. S. M. Papin. ... 2 

156 Free Speech and Free Press. P. B. Shelley 2 

157 Questions from a Western Reader. Bennett 3 

158 The Fool's Creed 1 

159 Bennett Indignation Meeting at Boston 5 

160 Sabbath Observance. W. E. Coleman , 3 

161 Protestant Persecutions 3 

162 Eighth Letter from Ludlow Street Jail. Bennett. ..... 10 

163 Ingersoll's Creed 2 



Scientific Series. 

1 Hereditary Transmission. Prof Elsburg, M.D 5 

2 Evolution; from the Homogeneous to the Heterogeneous. 

B. F. Underwood , 3 

3 Darwinism. B. F. Underwood 3 

4 Literature of the Insane. F. R. Marvin 5 

5 Responsibility of Sex. Mrs. Chase, M.D 3 

6 Graduated Atmospheres. J. McCarroU 2 

7 Death. Frederic R. Marvin, M.D 3 

8 How do Marsupial Animals Propagate their Kind? A. B. 

Bradford 2 

9 The Unseen World. Prof. John Fiske 10 

10 The Evolution Theory— Huxley's Three Lectures 10 

11 Is America the New World. L. L. Dawson 10 

12 Evolution Teaches neither Atheism nor Materialism. R. 

S. Brigham, M.D 5 

13 Nibble at Mr. John Fiske's Crumb for the Modern Sym- 

posium 10 

Discount on one dollar's worth 10 per cent off; on two dollars' 
worth, 20 off; on ^\e dollars' worth, 40 off; on ten dollars' worth, 
50 off. This rate of discount is given on the foregoing tracts only. 



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This sterling and widely-circulated Freethought Journal has won its 
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